The Prince and His Knight
by CrystallizedPen
Summary: Believing in a childhood promise, Flynn Sidos Heurassein Scifo-the crown prince tried his hardest to change the Empire into a better place. Besides him, there stood a knight, who had sworn to be his sword and shield, to always be by his side! FlynnxYuri, A/U
1. The Promise of Childhood

Hi there everyone! It has been a long time since I stopped writing fanfic, well probably...two years? However, I am very grateful for everyone who continue to support me. Today, I decided to make a comeback, all thanks to the aspiration that I gained from our fandom's talented writers. Especially, littlerosebud, Saenda, Erendyce, thanks for writing such awesome fic. And chrisandersenyuki, thank you so much for your kind reviews.

Thic fic is dedicated to everyone here who enjoyed reading about our favorite pairing. And please excuse any mistakes or weird writings. It had been too long since I wrote something, and this fic is not yet-betad. It will be a short mult-chap fic, possibly around 5 chaps in total.

So here you go everyone! Enjoy!

* * *

Thanks for his father's job as the imperial gardener; Yuri had the privilege of going in and out of the castle as much as his father's work allowed him to. For a thirteen years old kid, it was pretty awesome to enter and exit the enormous palace that forbidden to people from the lower quarter like he owned the place and Yuri loved that idea.

That day, a sunny morning near summer, Yuri tagged along with his father yet again to the castle. He was getting excited since he got nothing better to do besides fooling around with other kids from the lower quarter, and he actually started to get tired playing the same thing every day.

The imperial garden does live up to its name, even from afar, the scents of hundreds different types of flowers swam across the atmosphere, flooding into Yuri's mind a heavenly and refreshing scent that he did not get a chance to experience it before his father brought him here the first time. It was a unique scent that was totally different from any of the flower shops in the lower quarter that he knew.

"Yuri, you are not allowed to wander off like last time, you hear me?" His father looked at him and said in a firm tone.

Yuri pouted. Last time, he had gone behind his father's back, sneaking inside the castle's kitchen and got caught by two Imperial Guards. His father did give him an earful lecture about that on the spot. The two guards must have been scared by witnessing the outburst of his furiously pissed off father so much that they let him off the hook easily without turning him in. Well, Yuri could consider himself lucky.

However, again, there was no way in hell Yuri would sit still. If he sat still for too long, he would get bored, and when he got bored, he had no idea what spiteful prank he could come up with later. So, as being the same as he always was, when his father turned his back and began trimming the bushes, Yuri silently turned on his feet and disappeared out of the garden as if he just teleporting.

'_Last time I turned left at the end of this corridor, and it led me to the kitchen.' _Yuri thought to himself as he took the view of corridor inside his mind as he tried to recall what path he had taken, so he could choose somewhere else different to explore. It was not every day that you got to enter the castle and walk (more like sneak) around. Turning towards the right side of the hall, Yuri followed the trail of the endless red carpet and wondered happily where this carpet would lead him to. Hopefully, he would run into a beautiful princess that looked like she actually came out from a fairy tale book, or at least a prince, a handsome prince on white horse. The raven haired kid smiled amusingly to himself and carefully made his way down the corridor.

* * *

Flynn Sidos Heurassein Scifo was the crown prince of the country, and just turned thirteen a few months ago. He was intelligent and possessed a good sense of justice, despite being young. His parents, the king and queen only had him as son, therefore from when he was younger, he had been taught everything he needed to know in order to become a ruler of the country just like his father in the future. He understood quite well the heavy burden of the expectation that his parents and others placed on him, and considered that his responsibility to not let everyone down. However, once in a while, he felt tired from all those continuous lessons from morning till night, and just wished he had free time to play around with other kids his age. It was impossible, and he knew it. Since he was not allowed to go outside of the castle, and no kids were allowed to enter the castle on their own accord. So he pretty much spent time with his sister, who was three years younger than him. He loved her dearly, and he enjoyed her sweet company. But, Flynn wished for something more than that.

Today, he got a bit of free time because Professor Thelio who was in charge of teaching him military strategies suddenly fell ill and it was so sudden that they could not arrange for a substitute. Flynn did not know if he should feel happy about it or not, but he was thankful that he managed to have a break for himself. However, even though he was given a break, it was not like he had any idea on where to go or what to do. He intended to visit his sister, Princess Estellise, but she still had her lectures with the governesses at least until evening. Therefore, with no clear idea on mind, Flynn decided to just kill a bit of time inside the library and read a few of his favorite books.

The Imperial Library was located quite near the garden. That was one of the reasons why Flynn found himself spent time reading books on the windowsill with the window wide opened. He enjoyed having the flowing gust of wind blow gently, messing around with his blond locks. But above all, was the scent of hundreds flowers in spring that came with it. It smelled freshness and carried an ordinary feeling that came from a place where everything is bound by their own freedom. How Flynn had wished that he could someday able to have a taste of that foreign feeling too.

* * *

Following the seemed to be endless corridor actually lead him outside into another part of the imperial garden. Yuri was confident that he did not go around in a circle, because this fraction of the garden smelled entirely of lily, the flower of his name. He could not understand why did his parents give him such a girly name, but he saw no point in complaining, all was done.

Continued at his current pace, Yuri slowly approached a corner and began to turn, only then…just then…he believed he saw the most beautiful angel, who was sitting elegantly on the windowsill with a book in between his hands, with his eyes looking down onto the lily garden a few feet beneath him with a longing gesture. To Yuri, the blonde beauty was the best by far comparing to those he had encountered; maybe he was indeed an angel from heaven. He swore he could even see a pair of white wings grow from the blonde's back.

"Hey!" Yuri called out to the blonde boy. He saw him startled; his body leaned forward and began to lose his balance, falling out from the window sill where he was.

Panic flooded Yuri's mind, as he dashed forward with all of his might. Everything on his mind back then was to catch the blond, to prevent him from breaking into pieces by falling onto the hard ground below. Yes, he actually believed that the blonde was made of glass, and that was childish of him.

* * *

Flynn was day dreaming about the world outside the castle's wall. He wondered what it would be to witness everything with his own eyes. He wanted to grasp the taste of the true freedom and feel the freshly smell of ocean's wind splashed onto his face, how wonderful it would be.

"Hey!" A voice disturbed his train of thoughts, but the one thing that startled him was that the voice belonged to a kid, and definitely a boy. How could there possibly be a boy inside the castle?

And then Flynn felt himself losing balance, falling out from the window. It was not high enough to break bone, but it was still going to hurt. Flynn closed his eyes silently, praying for the moment where gravity embraced him and his body made a loud contact with the ground below to end soon. Only to...found himself landed on something soft, and to his surprise, it was not hurt at all.

"Are you alright?"

The prince shot opened his eyes, as he quickly turned around to identify the source of the voice. _'It was definitely a boy' _Flynn thought to himself, his mind still hazy from what had happened.

"If you're not hurt, then you mind standing up?"

"Oh, I am so sorry." Only when he realized that the source of voice was from beneath him, Flynn quickly jumped up, and settled on the ground nearby. Then when his mind became a bit coherent enough for him to take the whole situation into his brain, Flynn glanced over to the boy who was climbing up on his feet. His raven-haired was extraordinary; in fact he had not seen many people with hair like that color before. The only one he knew was Captain Nylen, who also processed such beautifully mysterious color, or used to. But now, upon seeing this boy, he thought, Captain Nylen's was nowhere near this. Inside his mane of black, there was hint of some purple highlight, not as dark as the night, but the color was close to those dark nights that reflected off the light of one or two rare stars. Taking a closer look at the boy before him, the most attractive part was not his hair alone, but also those eyes that shone out like two orbs of black pearl, only complemented on his dark mane in a perfect painting of mystic creature. It was rare, a beauty of rareness that suggested he was nowhere belong to the world Flynn was living.

"Despite looking scrawny, you're actually pretty heavy." The raven haired kid smirked at him; a mischievous look graced his big eyes. Well, he was about to thank the other kid for catching his falls, but now when Flynn thought about it, it was that kid's fault for calling out to him so sudden like that. And above anything, that kid just pushed the wrong button by saying 'scrawny', the least word he would want to hear from someone who actually look thinner than him.

The prince knitted his eyebrows in annoyance, remembering how his fencing teacher complained a lot about how unsuited his body was for sword fighting since he could not possibly put up much pressure on the blade just because his arms were too small, and as if it would break easily just by holding the sword alone. Flynn had sorted out some advices from his sister, drinking lots of milk everyday so that he could get taller and stronger and become a perfect leader, just like his father.

A noise of someone clearing his throat brought Flynn back to reality from his own little sulking world. The raven haired kid smiled at him, and he thought he should just said thank to the other, since it was indeed because of him that he did not get hurt from falling. Well, royalty could not forget their manners, or so he was taught.

"I sincerely am thankful for your kind assistance a moment ago. I…"

"Thank you!"

"Pardon me?" Flynn shot the other boy a confused look, only to be met by a cheerful black eyes staring back at him.

"Just _thank you_ is enough." The boy brought his hand to the back of his head and started scratching it, "Jeez! That is why I can't stand noble, the way they talk just too freaking long. Why not just cut to the chase and get right to the point?"

"Ah…thank you!" Flynn muttered, his face was still confusingly shocked.

"The name is Yuri!"

"I am Flynn Sidos Heurassein Scifo. You can address me by _Scifo_." The prince extended his hand, expecting to receive a handshake from a boy. However, he found his shoulder got gripped by a small arm, pulling him closer in a short hug before he was released.

"Nah, I'm gonna call you Flynn, much easier."

'_Flynn!' _ Had ever anyone addressed him by his first name like that, not even his parents or his sister. And this kid, judging by the clothes he worn, who was definitely a commoner actually dared to address him like that. However, the sound of his name being spoken out loud for the first time ever since long ago did make him feel refreshing and truthfully, a bit happy.

That aside, how did this kid manage to enter the castle anyway? Flynn wondered. As far as he knew, commoners were not allowed to enter the castle by any means. Even the noble could find it hard time to obtain permission to enter the palace. Then why…?

"Um…you know that you are not supposed to be here, don't you?" Flynn crocked an eyebrow, eyeing the boy carefully. There was no way a kid like him could sneak inside the castle that easily. Not that the castle was heavily guarded to begin with. However, the fact that seeing another kid about his age inside the castle's ground made him a bit happy. A smile almost escaped his lips but then he managed to hide it quickly enough before the other notice his strangely weird behavior.

The boy called Yuri grinned, the mischievous smile graced his lips again as he spoke "Yeah, I guess so. My father nags a lot about how I can't wander off around the castle on my own. But hey, who can resist the urge exploring the places that you don't get to see every day?" It gradually made Flynn feel that being mischievous and playful was a natural part of him.

"However true it may be, you are still not supposed to be…" The prince found himself scowling, encountered the nonchalant expression from the other party.

"Hey Flynn, how old are you?"

"I just turned thirteen a few months ago, but you cannot stay here, you have to…"

"So we are the same age then! Such a coincidence."

"Is that so? It is truly a nice coincidence. But you have to leave before someone else…"

"Do you have any kind of food you like?"

"Oh…nothing in particular for me. And hey, do not keep on changing subject like that."

"You like sweet?"

"…I can eat them, but I would rather not to have them every day…"

And then the stupid circle of irrelevant subjects kept on pilling up and before Flynn knew it, he ended up sitting down on a small marble bench beside the garden and fully engaged in whatever conversations Yuri came up with. They talked for who know how long, and to Flynn's surprise, he did not mind the company of the other boy at all. In fact he was happy and glad that he finally got to chat with someone about his age. A rare opportunity for the prince, and he thought he could take advantage of the situation to rid himself of any boredom within the four walls of the castle.

"Yuri, you mentioned your father just now. May I ask who is he?"

"Einar Lowell, he works here as the Imperial Gardener. Sounds mighty huh? We live in a small house at the Lower Quarter, and usually my parents get paid enough to not worry about being starved, but couldn't say that we make enough for having three square meals everyday." Yuri closed his eyes, kicking both his legs into thin air playfully.

"So you are Mr. Lowell's son? He did mention about having a son around my age." Flynn remembered talking to him a few times when he was passing through the garden. Einar Lowell was a strict, yet very kind hearted man, judging by the way he held each flower branch carefully as if they made out of crystal, Flynn immediately knew. "I am sorry to hear about your family's situation, Yuri. I would not know…" Feeling like something stuck against his throat, Flynn bitterly thought about how many other civilians struggled each passing day just to be able to feed their families, and fighting to stay alive, not knowing what the next day will be.

A harsh slap on his shoulder pulled him back to reality, Flynn surprisingly yelped by the violent contact as he turned around looking at the raven haired boy annoyingly.

The other smirked, "Of course you wouldn't know. Considering how a spoiled prince like you has never set foot outside this castle. I wouldn't expect anything less!" And it made Flynn felt extremely stupid and arrogant about the world. Not that what the other said was entirely wrong either.

A warm breeze flowed through the garden of lily, as Flynn noticed the new scent that the wind brought along. It was a refreshing and heart-warming scent that set one's mind at ease. Why now, after so long now that the wind started to change. No longer did he felt being cramped by the place he was living. He glanced over to the boy who he just knew for a few hours, whose cheerful personality had managed to rub off on him. Flynn had never found himself laughing so much that his stomach hurt like crazy prior meeting the boy. Little did he know this boy would one day mess up his foretold life, twisting his feeling around, and indeed become a part of him. A new, yet strangely precious wind that came and blew away the cage that held him captive from reaching for the blue sky. The only key that truly set him free.

After a few small chat, the two finally parted as Yuri needed to hurry back to where his father was before him noticing his absence. Flynn's eyes followed the running off figure of the small boy; before he completely disappeared around the corner that he finally let his mind began thinking about the promise of meeting again the next few days.

* * *

"Brother, you look so happy. Did something good happen?" The pink haired princess asked, while leaning against her older brother's shoulder.

"Oh...It is nothing." Flynn denied quickly. As much as he loved his sister dearly, he could not risk talking about Yuri to others, afraid that everyone would prevent him from secretly meeting up with him again.

"You have been spacing out too much recently. Yesterday, you were busy smiling to yourself that you did not hear Professor Alkin was calling on you. Even though mother is happy that you have become more energetic, but father is not at all."

Indeed, his father would not be pleasant hearing reports about him spacing out here and there, and especially during class. However, Flynn could not possibly give his full attention to the lecture, since he was busying recalled the great time that he had and wishfully waiting for his next encounter with Yuri.

* * *

Each time Yuri visited him, he brought along many stories from the Lower Quarter where he lived and around the city. It was fun and entertaining hearing the boy talked about what he saw and did. How he sometimes went fishing at the nearby river with his father, and even how he got into fights with other kids from the Royal Quarter. Flynn did give the boy a lecture about not fighting other people, but Yuri just waved it off. Well, it was not Yuri's fault that the fight started to begin with. So Flynn let the matter slide easily.

"That red headed fat kid that always wear this big of a ring on his thump, what was his servant called him again?"

"You must be referring to Alberto, he is the son of Earl Manshattis. I was introduced to him by his father a few months ago during my thirteenth birthday party. And for some reason, Earl Manshattis family are really fond of wearing huge diamond rings." Flynn recalled his awful encounter that time, how both the Earl and his son made a big commotion just because they dropped the ring onto the dance floor and a person unintentionally stepped on it. Obviously, it was not broken, since it made out of diamond, however, they made quite a scene and needless to say, he would appreciate not meeting them again for the rest of his life.

Yuri waved his hand, not minding the little detail, continued with his story, "That one and a few others were bullying an abandoned puppy. So I had to give them a lesson. While fighting, that fat kid dropped his ring, and I snatched it away from him when he was about to lean down and pick it up. And of course, that was my trophy." A victorious gleam blinked off within Yuri's dark eyes, like a single star that shone up the night sky.

"Yuri, you knew that taking what is not yours is wrong right?"

"Well, I never said that I didn't give it back, I throw it back into their garden, and I'm hoping that they manage to find it inside some bushes. Or not!"

"Oh Yuri…!" Flynn could not help but smiled widely. Yuri could make him laugh all day without putting up too much effort.

"And that dog, I brought him home, and my parents already allowed me to keep it. I'm trying to think of a cool name for him. He is like a small wolf, with blue fur and a tail shaped like a thunder bold, so I was thinking of naming him Thunder Bold or something."

After a second thinking to himself, Flynn opened his mouth, "Thunder Bold sounds a bit lame, and I do not believe the dog would appreciate that."

Faking a hurt expression, Yuri turned to the prince with his hand hugging his chest as if in pain, his other free hand wrapped around the blonde's shoulder and pulled him close, "Your Highness, please pardon me-a commoner who was not given a proper education ever since he was born."

The prince's face immediately turned red as he whispered words of apology. Yuri just being Yuri and laughed it off, giving the blonde's back yet another harsh pat. Sometimes, Flynn wondered, did Yuri even remember that he was talking to a royal and a crown prince as a matter of fact? But oh well, it was just Yuri being himself. And Flynn found himself completely fine with that.

Then Flynn suddenly remembered he read in the book a few days ago, he smiled softly and turned asides to face his raven-haired friend, "How about naming him Repede? A few days ago, I went through this old book of myths, and stumbled across this name. That name means 'Lightning' in ancient language, and it was also the name of a brave hero who accompanied a mage on her quest to discover about the aer and blastia that we are using today. So I think the name would fit him."

To Flynn's surprise, Yuri agreed to it without saying anything, too easily. He thought at least the raven haired was going to give him another one of those look, saying it was a lame idea. He even said that the final decision was still the dog though, but he was pretty sure the dog would not mind having such a cool name like that.

Seeing the look in his friend's eyes, gleaming with brilliant light of someone who could taste the wind of freedom splashed across his face every day of his lives, Flynn felt jealous. Ever since he was born, Flynn was not given the chance to go outside the castle. He understood that someday, when he grew older, he would be allowed to go outside to the world. But, it was a pretty slim chance for a crown prince, who needed extreme protection, and there was unnecessary to travel outside. Furthermore, he had not had the confidence of growing up not turning arrogant and become a spoiled prince that everyone would laugh at. Even his father, King Finath had not been outside for as long as he could remember.

Flynn sighed; he wondered if one day he would grow up to be an arrogant and ignorant about the world like he feared? His mother-the Queen once said to his princess sister: _'Ignorant is a bliss'_ However true it might be, Flynn could not bring himself to live a happy and carefree life as long as he was still a crown prince. An ignorant King could not lead a country.

Then an insane idea came up to his mind, a thinking that he could not believe that it even existed in him. He wondered where all of these crazy ideas came from. Throughout those past thirteen years, none of these ideas had even crossed his mind. Perhaps, it was an influence that Yuri rubbed on him. The blonde gathered his strength, turning towards his friend, and asked, "Can you please escort me outside of the castle, and by 'escort' I mean sneak out, because I am not allowed to leave this palace. I want to see the world outside this castle's walls. I cannot afford to let myself grow up to be a useless prince, knowing nothing about the world." He looked straight at the other boy and said with a pleading tone. And he immediately received a playful smile from Yuri, plus one soft grip from the boy on his shoulder.

Yuri blinked his eyes, smiling, "Thought you will never ask."

Had the boy already anticipated that he would eventually ask that of him at some point? Flynn could not tell what was going on with the other boy. One thing clear was that he could truly be the right wind that needed to set him off into a new direction. Whether it was going to be good or bad, he could not tell. However, for some reason, he knew he could at least put some trust for this boy, at least for now.

"Conveniently, I just found out that there is a part of the garden that has a hole connected to the outside. Im not sure why it was there, but it connected to an abandoned house in the Public Quarter. Not many guards patrol that area often though, so I think we can use that to sneak out."

"That is pretty amazing Yuri. Although, I cannot bring myself to accept the fact that you wandering around the castle ground on your own accord like that." Yet, he could not hide the smile that was gracing his lips while remanding the other boy. "However, I am in your debt, Yuri!"

* * *

The next day when Flynn had just dismissed his servants and they obediently left him alone at the garden without any further question, he turned around the corner and walked slowly to where he was supposed to meet up with Yuri. And to his anticipation, the raven haired had already showed up, leaning against the stoned wall with decorative vines swam across and messily between small cracks of the wall.

Yuri gave the Prince a small nod before motioning his hand for the blonde to follow. The two kids carefully made their way across the garden, tip-toeing on their feet, and quickly hide when there was a sight of a guard coming by. That exotic feeling was foreign to Flynn. Never did he have the leisure to walk around the castle with his back benched downwards like he was ready to commit an act of sin. It was strangely how his heart was always on the edge of jumping out of his chest whenever he caught a glimpse of a Guard's shadow nearby. His heart beat so fast, holding his breath in check was difficult. Comparing to him, Yuri seemed to be at ease and relaxed as always, the boy was indeed enjoying himself out of all this.

Finally they managed to turn at the end of the walk path and found themselves in front of an old stoned wall, it was quite far off inside the other end of the garden, where no one had cared for, judging by the overgrown grasses and messily untrimmed bushes, must be over two to three years utmost.

Yuri looked around for a bit and began rummaging through layers of vines and leaves and within few seconds, revealing a small hole that was about the size of a kid leading to the other side of the stone wall. Outside of the castle and onto the enormous world that Flynn would be able to experience for the first time ever since his birth. He got excited just by the thought, and finally his dream would come true. All thanks to the raven haired boy.

"Give me your hand, Flynn."

Flynn looked up at the extending hand in front of him; he knew this was the right person that going to give the little push for him to be free, the one holding the key to his happiness. Returning the gaze of the raven haired with a smile, the Prince reached out his hand, taking in a hold of the small, bony yet strong hand. "Thank you, Yuri!"

After walking for a while, they finally arrived at the center of the Public Quarter; a big fountain marked the central of the city square with a touch of gentleness to a tough and gray capital. Around him, kids his age ran around in circle, playing tag happily. They kept yelling, laughing along with the merrily laughter from a group of middle aged women nearby that he assumed must be those kids parents. A nudge onto his elbow reminded him that the raven haired boy did not have all day to wait for him to space out. Flynn nodded briefly before start trailing after the boy. Yuri led him to the other side of the fountain, where a beautiful lady sat gracefully on a stone bench with a bunch of kids settled on the ground under and listened to her stories. She was in a middle of a story about a prince and his loyal knight who went through hardships together to protect and lead a nation. Flynn was already familiar with such story since he was younger, but that did not stop him from sucking in the sweet heavenly voice of her.

"Hey Lune, this is the kid I told you about." Yuri spoke to the lady without minding his manner, and the lady didn't seem to mind either.

The lady stopped her story, turning aside looking at Flynn and a smile gracefully appeared, "Hi there, nice to meet you, boy. I'm Lune, the story teller."

"Nice…nice to make your acquaintance, my name is Flynn."

"You wanna join us?"

Before Flynn had a chance to open his mouth to answer, Yuri already dragged him away by his hand. The latter waved back at the lady, "Sorry Lune, another time, this guy has an important date for today." And Flynn found himself blushing at that. The firm grip on his hand only increased the mysterious heat that crawling up his neck subconsciously.

Yuri dragged him away from the Public Quarters and down the cracked gray stoned staircases, in which he assumed was the path to the Lower Quarter. It was these staircases that invisibly divided the differences in living. He had heard of it plenty enough from the people at the castle, however, this was definitely his first time seeing one.

The Lower Quarter was somewhat suffocating, houses next to houses, laundry hung up and down from one house to the other. The roads were crowded with people rushing to do their daily jobs. Shop carts were placed next to each other on each side of the road, Flynn found it to be a hard time for himself to move through the streets without colliding with anyone. However, all thanks to Yuri, who kept on holding onto his hand, guiding him around with swift moment that he did not get to bump into someone, not that he was complaining. As expected from a boy who grew up from this place, Yuri seemed to be knowing his way around.

"Where are we going Yuri?" Flynn asked when they finally stopped at a quite run down building, but by the sight of people walking in and out frequently, Flynn knew it was inhabited. Yuri pointed at the small room on the second floor, saying that it was the room his family rented from the kind landlady who owned the pub downstairs. He told Flynn to wait for him while he went up to get something.

When the sight of the raven haired boy disappeared on the side staircase, Flynn did as he was told, waiting patiently for the other to come back. He took the time taking in the view of the vicinity and the living of the Lower Quarter people. It was certainly mind opening, and certainly different from what he had seen from the Royal Quarter. Everyone here seemed to run against the time to get their job done and always seemed to lack of money. While the people from the Royal Quarter lived and did things leisurely, or sometimes lazily, since they did not need to work hard for money.

"Hey, are you new here?"

Flynn turned towards the source of the voice, and saw a group of kids approaching him. The one that the voice belonged to was a small and tiny girl, probably about the same age as his princess sister or even one or two years older. Her blue hair was pulled up into two messy pony tails as if she had a hard time doing that herself.

The girl eyed him carefully with a pair of curious round eyes that reminded him of the purple amethyst stone on his mother's hairpin. She caught his feature into her eyes and then a smile graced her lips that reminded him too much of a certain raven haired.

The girl took a few steps closer to him, her eyes still fixed on him and it made him stirred uncomfortably. Until now no one in the castle had stared at him this intensely before, Flynn subconsciously took a step back away from the girl. However, the girl did not seem to be doing him the favor of giving him his very much needed personal space as seeing how she kept on cornering him stubbornly.

"The hem of the sleeves and the coat were made from blue satin, the part of this collar and the pockets were made from white silk. And not any kind of silk, but the kind of silk that can only be obtained by really wealthy nobles or _royalties_."

"Par-pardon me?" The way on how she stretched at the last part almost made him jump. Flynn blinked, bringing his arm up till his eye level, and true enough, they were indeed made out of satin. Flynn had ever notice what materials were used for his clothing. After all, he was not a girl to bother thinking about those stuffs. Talking about girl, this girl seemed to know her stuffs around fabric and clothing. Not that she seemed to come from a high class family judging by the messy hair and the color of the outfit she was wearing was already faded. Flynn felt bad for thinking like that but he doubted the girl had the chance to come in contact with any of the noble or aristocrats.

Then, another set of familiar voice from behind relieved Flynn from his inner uneasiness. He turned around and much to his relief, Yuri was beside him, hand holding onto a basket with a brown fabric covered above the content inside.

"Judy, leave the poor kid alone, will you?" The raven haired said while pushing the basket onto the girl, whose name was apparently 'Judy'. "Here are the cookies that your mother ordered yesterday, thanks for your patronage, please come again."

The girl took off the brown cover, revealing delicious looking cookies; she took one out and had a bite, "Cookies aunty Yuria makes are always yummy." She smiled then offered one for Flynn, in which he politely declined.

"Oh, by the way Yuri, is this the boy that you told me yesterday?" After finishing her cookie, Judy turned her attention to Flynn, asking.

"Yeah, his name is Flynn, a pretty much so-called noble." He nudged at his back, pushing Flynn forward. Then he turned to Flynn, "This is Judy, her mother is a seamstress working at Madam Krafman Imperial Clothing."

That answered his previous question before, if her mom's profession was making clothing and dresses for noble and royalties then it would not be strange for her to come into contact with valuable and expensive materials. And Flynn knew that Madam Krafman's fashion design was extremely popular among the Royal Quarter. His mother was one of the fans.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Judith." The girl smiled, properly introduced herself.

"The pleasure is all mine." Flynn nodded, returning her with just as the same smile.

Then Judith offered to show him around the Lower Quarter, along with Yuri. The three of them went to the square, and had a fun time playing tag. With a few other kids joining in a bit later, the game was pretty much heated up. The climax was when Yuri-being 'it' and ran after Flynn like he was the easiest prey. He tackled both of them and ended up crashing onto a newspaper stand, resulting in a furious man yelling at them. Flynn was so ashamed at himself for causing others trouble, however, upon seeing Yuri stuck his tongue out at the man when he turned around brought a huge grin onto the prince's lips. Never before in his life until now that had he experienced such joy. Running around, playing tag with kids his age without having to worry about the maids frantically running after him to ensure that he did not going to fall.

In between the tag game, Flynn turned around and seeing Yuri ran after him, smiling from ears to ears. A beautifully sincere smile directed at him that none of the noble kids could ever give him. A smile that spoke of a new friendship and perhaps something more than that was about to come. Flynn could not be sure, and for now he would not be able to know. Yet, the thought along built up a sweet feeling inside his heart. Could it be true that this boy would be able to set him free from the cage that was kept him away since his birth?

The question followed him into his sleep that night; it made his heart ached in a joyful throb. The promise of seeing each other tomorrow kept on projecting inside his mind, bringing him to believe that his world was expanding slowly, with Yuri being the ray of sunlight that would touch him at the first presence of morning.

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That's it for the first chapter, hope you guys like it! Review are appreciated! Thank you for reading, everyone! :D


	2. The Promise of Childhood cont

Hi there everyone, I am so happy to receive such kind reviews! Thank you for those who reviewed, favorited and alerted this story. Here is the continuation of the first part of the story. Please enjoy, and please pardon any mistakes there are. And this chapter is half short as that of the first ones. But please bear with me. I promise the next one would be longer.

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The next day, and a few days after, and a few months went by. The crown prince and his Lower Quarter friend kept on hanging out together both inside and outside the castle. They took turns being tour guide, as Flynn showed Yuri around the palace's library and his own chamber. They even had a pillow fight that resulted in a huge commotion with the maids. And Yuri showed Flynn around his house, meeting his mother, and tasted her cooking. Then they went fishing at the river, with Repede tagging alone. The dog had gotten quite attached to him ever since they finally met for the first time, and Yuri told him that Repede seemed to like the name that he gave him while ago.

* * *

"Going outside the city? Are you sure about that Yuri?" The prince threw a disbelieved look at his friend, who was leaning against the wall of the latter's bedroom nonchalantly while holding the dog inside his lap. His black eyes stared off into a distance, quite opposite from Flynn, his eyes was glistening with excitement.

"Well, it's not like we are gonna go too far from the city, there is this place that just beyond that big tree over there that I really want to show you." Yuri pointed through his window, as Flynn followed it a second later with his gaze, only to be met with a sight of a tree behind the layers of houses. He wondered what would be so great about that area that Yuri wanted to show him so badly that he would even go as far as using his pocket money to buy a wooden sword. 'As a means of weapon in case running into monsters'-or so he said.

Flynn had no idea on how did the raven haired managed to talk him into tagging along. However, he was probably at fault too since he did wanted to see more of the world around him, and he got to admit, the invitation itself was quite tempting.

So, the two kids set off with a feeling of happy anticipation. They hid inside a horse cart while the owner did not notice and jumped down when it was outside the city and a little bit far off the main road.

Holding his hand tightly, the raven haired led him away from the main road and towards the now definitely looking bigger tree comparing to the sight from Yuri's window. A gust of wind brushed against his face in a gentle embrace, bringing his hair flying along with faint scent of some kind of exotic flower.

"We are here."

The excited voice of his friend brought him back from his river of thoughts, and amazingly, in front of him beautifully stood a hill of primroses. The faint scent of flower grew stronger, flooded his mind with a splendid painting. Everything together with the clear blue sky blended in a harmonious melody. The prince smiled, letting out a breath that he had been holding unknowingly, his heart skipped a beat at the changing wind. From beyond the hill, he could see the entire world just over the horizon. Vast land of green, and picturesque unending range of mountains. He could see how the horizon line stretched far beyond his eye sight to catch up. Soon one day, all of this land would be his to rule, and Flynn felt scared at the thought. How would he be able to rule this vast country while having no knowledge about it and the people? An unknown fear crawled across his heart, and he shivered, feeling the wind just suddenly turned a bit too cold.

A light touch on his hair startled him as he felt something was placed there besides his ear. It was a white primrose. He turned and saw Yuri. The raven haired- as if able to read into his trouble smiled at him, holding another red primrose in his hand.

"Don't worry, you will become an excellent king."

Suddenly, his legs felt all weak as he trembled to the ground feeling all the weight on his shoulder had been lifted. Just a few bare words from Yuri shook his entire being, freeing him from his invisible burden. Yuri sat down next to him moment later; his bright smile had not faded still. "The primrose really does suit you, Your Highness", he said.

"You look good with it too, Yuri." He reached out to placed a flower on the raven haired boy's hair with trembling hand.

And both of them burst into laughter, unsure why such childish comments could be so funny. However, neither of them actually cared. Being to laugh out loud like that was a blessing, and they kept on laughing to forget everything surrounded them. To laugh and forget all their worries, and to just enjoy each other's company.

After settled down under the tree, Flynn asked Yuri the reason for showing him this primrose field. He knew that the primrose held a special meaning, since he remembered reading it from a book. The raven haired boy looked at him, and started explaining. It was because this place had a nice view of the land, and primrose-Yuri was hesitated for a while before answering-was a special flower for him. Flynn felt curious at how his friend's cheek lit up with tiny hint of red, but he would not pry more onto the matter, instead taking his little free time to just sit there, besides his friend, and enjoyed the scent of true freedom. If he could describe it, it would be of a mix of sweetness from flower, a cool feel of wind, and especially an earth taste of his commoner friend. In his thought, Flynn subconsciously snuggled closer to the raven-haired, wanting to remember the scent of the latter, taking in every feature of him, of his very first true friend.

The two silently lied down on the field, enjoying each other company before it was about time for Flynn to go back, unless he wanted a whole army of Imperial Guards to come after him.

Flynn turned his head, looking at the scenery one last time before trailing after his friend. This would probably the last time he got to see this breathtaking view so he tried his best to remember as much details as possible.

Suddenly Yuri stopped in his track with his head looked down at something on the road. Flynn's gaze followed the same direction as the former picked up that object. As it turned out, it was a small black stone. Flynn could not make out whether it was a valuable gem or just a junk stone. However, by the light that gently reflected within the black surface against the sunlight, it could not be any of a normal value. Some noble must have dropped it while they were sight-seeing, or so he thought.

His raven haired friend seemed to be taken quite a liking to the stone as seeing how his eyes lightened up by the sight of it.

Flynn was thinking of returning that stone to its owner, however, it seemed too impossible of the task, seeing how he had no idea who dropped it.

"Hey, you want half of it?"

"Yuri…when did you break it into half?" Flynn stared at the now roughly broken stones in shock.

The kid smirked at him, forcing one part onto his hand, "You and I gonna keep half of this stone, a proof of our friendship."

Looking at the identical stone in his hand, a shocking look quickly be replaced by a gentle smile that found its way across his face. 'Proof of friendship', he liked the sound of that. At least when he got older, and circumstances would not allow him to keep this friendship with Yuri, this piece of stone would be there to remind him that Yuri was a part of his childhood, and his most precious friend.

After carefully placed the stone inside his pocket, the two walked together down the dirt path while chatting about lots of stuffs. They almost reached the city gate when the sun was setting down its very few last rays of light.

They were almost near the city, and he saw the guards, who seemed to pretty relax. Well, after all there was not a single sight of monster lurking around here. But Flynn forgot the fact that monsters were usually more active at night. He remembered seeing the bush besides Yuri swaying, a hiss of some creature approached. He remembered pushing his raven haired friend aside, and black shadow lunged at him. His body hurt when he crashed against the ground, however, the pain he felt on his left arm was nowhere near it. Then suddenly, an unknown happiness washed over him, as the monster had struck him instead. He could not afford to lose Yuri, not now, not when he finally found his true friend, the one who opened up and lightened his world.

He started losing the feel of his arm, his eyes felt heavy, and just when he totally plugged himself into the darkness, he swore he heard the shouting of Yuri, and a dreadful screech of the creature was the last thing he could take in.

* * *

Flynn woke up to the sound of morning bird, his head hurt, and also his left arm. He slowly sat up, a vicious pain shot through his head as he winced, trying to take in the view of his surroundings. It was his chamber! The last time he remembered walking down the road with Yuri, and then they were attacked by some kind of monsters. He got injured by pushing Yuri out of the attack's range, and then it seemed that he lost unconscious. How did he manage to end up at his bed chamber, with the wound were already taken care of?

A slight open of the door woke him up from his dream of thought, he turned around just in time to see a dot of pink tackled him to the bed.

"Es-Estellise?"

His baby prince lunged herself into his arms, green emerald eyes bored into his blue ones, worryingly. She pat him here and there, asking if his wound still hurt. After quite an effort he put up to reassure her he was alright, the princess finally settled down on the chair beside him and began filling him up with the events that he had missed.

It seemed that after Flynn passed out due to the blood loss and pain, his friend had single-handedly wiped out the monster. According to the description, it was just a small wolf monster, yet, to be able to defeat a monster by the age of thirteen was somewhat admirable. Then Yuri in a panic carried him on his back, running back to the city and asked the guards there for help. Upon seeing a fainted crown prince with blood dripping off his arm, all the guards were thrown into disarray. The sequence of events following were consisted of Flynn being carried back to the castle and treated carefully by the Imperial Medical Team. His mother-the queen almost fainted herself when she saw the state Flynn was in, however, the doctor assured her that his wound was nothing serious.

"How many days have I been out?"

"Two days, our mother was starting to get really worried. It was hard for us to convince her to get some rest, in which she finally did."

"I see…" Flynn looked aside, avoiding the eyes of his sister. Not only had he caused everyone such trouble, but also his mother and Yuri… YURI!

"Estellise! Where is my friend? I mean the boy who carried me back to the city? Where is he now?"

"You must mean Yuri. He insisted on staying at the castle until you regained your consciousness. However, father and mother could not let him do that, seeing how he was the reason for your injury."

"No, it was not Yuri's fault. It was my idea to go outside the city." Flynn found himself raising his voice, almost to that of a shouting.

The princess shook her head, pulling his hand into her own, and said, "I know too that you are also at fault. However, brother, entering the castle and misleading the crown prince, resulting in his injury are serious. No matter how young he still is, he would have to face his punishment."

The word 'punishment' craved a deep, dark wound inside Flynn's heart. He was also at fault for not stopping his friend, but putting all the blame on only him was just unfair.

The princess seemed to notice the change in expression on her brother's face, so she continued, "Please, do not worry, brother! Aside from all of his charges, he was still your savior; he defeated the monster and brought you back safely. We are indebted to him. The council was quite level-headed as they want to ensure a punishment for him. However, we cannot deny the fact that he saved you, so they all agree on the banishment of the Lowell family from the capital would be sufficient enough."

'Sufficient enough?' Flynn felt wrath built up inside his heart, boiling his entire body. He could sense how his hands started trembling, from rage. He clenched his hands together in a pathetic attempt to stay calm and collect his thoughts.

"When will his family have to leave?"

"It is tomorrow." The princess could not look at her brother in the eyes, merely whispered.

"Where is father? I need to see him! It was not Yuri's fault, nor Mr. Lowell's. Why do they have to be punished by something that they did not deserve?

He rushed out of bed, winced at the throbbing pain on his arm, but decided to ignore all that, he pushed open the door with his body, and ran across the hallway. Ignoring the confused and panicked look the guards and servants threw at him. He did remember some of them actually ran after him, pleading him to go back to his room and rest. Yet, he did not care, not one bit about his well-being when such a thing had happened to his friend and his family.

"Father! Please help Yuri and his family." He breathed between his pleading, after barging in his father's study without his permission. Usually, that type of action would set his father in rage. However, it seemed that the king had anticipated this coming, seeing as how he did not bother to look up from his book.

"Father!" Flynn raised his voice, trying to have the king's attention.

After a moment, King Finath finally looked up from his book, fixing his blue graze on his son, skeptically. He closed the book in a loud bang, "There is nothing I can do now about that kid's situation, the council had already decided on the banishment."

"But…can you not do something father? You are a king, everyone will have to listen to whatever you say, so this ti-"

"Prince Scifo, must I remind you again that what the kid and his family are suffering like now is a result of your irresponsibility. If you had not sneaked out of the castle, then none of this would have happen. Before thinking about using your authority to cover up your mistake, I will have to remind you that this country does not have a need for a useless king who would abandon his duties over such a trivial matter. Besides, being a king does not mean having absolute power, there are the Imperial Council members as well. If you think this is unfair, then change it Scifo, be a better King and change this country."

The king then dismissed him and resumed with his reading.

So there was nothing he could do for his friend, besides causing him trouble.

His father was right, this was happening all because of his fault. If he had not sneaked outside the castle, if he had not befriended with Yuri, then none of this could have happened.

He needed to look for Yuri, to meet with his very first friend, he must be at his house right now. He must be…he had to see him. If he could not stop him from going, then at least he could have met him, one last time. He owed him an apology.

The prince hurried back to his room, preparing a small letter for Yuri, asking for him to meet him tonight at the primrose field. He then entrusted the letter to Captain Nylen, who Flynn was very fond of. That man had been a good friend of Flynn, and also his archery teacher. He knew it was selfish of him to ask a favor that of the Captain, knowingly that it was impossible of a chance for him to turn it down. But, he needed to meet with Yuri, for whatever it takes. Luckily, the response he got from Captain Nylen was a positive one, not only would he deliver the message, but he was willing to escort Flynn to his destined place.

"If I leave ya kid alone, ya would probably not end up with only a scratch arm this time."

And Flynn felt so happy hearing that.

* * *

Later that night, just as promised, the Captain waited for him just outside of the library window. The very first place when he first met Yuri. He carefully looked around, making sure that no one would spot him. Although he did disguise himself hidden under a black cloak, it would still smell off things as someone suspicious if some guards were to spot him wandering the castle like that.

"I appreciate your help, Captain Nylen." The prince settled himself on the saddle, snuggled in closer to the old captain, hidden under his knight cloak, hopefully with this small frame, it would get pass the castle guards without being noticed.

They managed to pass through the city's gate without much trouble. And the primrose field was not that far away. Flynn could feel his heart jumped up and down in worry. What would he say to Yuri when he saw him? An apology did not seem to be enough! However, above all, he was not going to see the raven haired boy anymore; he would lose the first friend that he had made…just like that, in one instance.

The Prince braced himself for what was about to come, he would brace himself for the outrage from Yuri, and worse, a hit or two. But, he knew that would not be enough, still not enough to suppress the pain of loss.

Seeing a small shadow from afar, he knew that Yuri was already there, waiting to punch him, to shout at him for what happened to his family.

"Yuri…"

The said raven haired boy turned around upon hearing his name being whispered. His black eyes met him, and he could see the emotions flaring up all at once…anger, anxiety, and relief?

Both of them stared at each other, neither one attempted to make a move, but silently looking at each other eyes. Flynn could feel the boy's gaze roamed over his face, and moved down to his left arm, where the visible line of white bandage still clung tightly around his wound.

"Does it still hurt?"

"No…not anymore."

"I'm sorry." Yuri's hands clenched tightly together, while his whole body shook in broken helplessness. His eyes shone through the dark night, glistening as though he was about to cry.

"Look, Yuri, this is not your fault…It was mine…" Flynn took a step forward, approaching his friend, putting one hand on the other's shoulder, pulling them closer.

"It was because of me that you got hurt, if only I had not persuaded you to go outside the city, then none of this would happen to you. I'm sorry, Flynn."

The voice sounded broken, and it broke the prince's heart as well. Just because of a rash course of action, their newfound friendship was no longer remained. Not only him, but his family had to get involved in a childish act of his. If only Yuri would yell at him, punch him right in the face, he would feel much better. Much better seeing how shaken his friend was, resting helplessly against his shoulder, kept on whispering words of apology over and over again. Flynn patted the other's back, muttered an apology for causing his family's banishment, and not being able to help them.

The two stood silently, until quite a while that Yuri finally calmed down. He looked up, his swollen eyes met with Flynn's. The prince tried to take in the depth of emotions from his friend's eyes, imprinting everything into his memory. They were not going to see each other again. His heart throbbed, painfully.

"Flynn…I will come back."

It was such a faint sound that Flynn almost failed to notice how his friend finally lit up a weak smile.

"I will definitely come back for you. I will become stronger, and I will come and see you. Next time, I will be the one protecting you. So…until then… wait for me."

Flynn found himself speechless, however eventually nodded his head in affection. Taking both of the boy's hands into his own. "I will. Until then, I will become a good ruler, and change this country into a better place where justice and fairness are in place. I await your return Yuri."

"That's our promise then." The raven haired smirked, and before Flynn had the time to smile back, his face was pulled forward, close enough to Yuri as he landed a chaste kiss on the prince's cheek.

"With that our promises are sealed, with the witness of this primrose field."

_'Yuri…did you know that the meaning of primrose is 'for eternity'?'_

Looking at the retreating form of his friend, with black hair flew gently against the midnight wind. They parted without a proper word of farewell. He was surprised that instead of feeling all gloomy and internally painful, he felt relieved, and a tint of newfound hope lingered at the corner of his heart. Warmly, and slowly reaching the innermost of his soul. The prince turned on his feet, returning to where Captain Nylen was waiting for him. His hand clenched tightly around the half piece of the stone that he received from Yuri. With this, and the promise upon the primroses, he turned towards the castle, knowing full well in his heart that both of them shall meet again someday. That was right, there was no need for a farewell; all he needed to say was,

"See you later, Yuri."

* * *

So that is it for the childhood part! Reviews are very welcomed, thank you everyone for reading this and I will see you guys again in the next chapter. XD


	3. The Resolve of Present

Hi there evryone, this is the chapter where everyone is waiting for. Adult Flynn and Yuri! XDD I seriously enjoy writing them as adults better than kids. Thanks for everyone who fav, reviews this story. Thank you :D

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The normal routine for an imperial maid consisted of lots of duties to do, and one part of them was waking up the royal members. The red haired maid took great pride in her job, and she considered herself luckier than the others because she was entrusted with the task of waking up the crown prince, got to be the one to see him first thing in the morning, and spent a few moments alone with him before other maids came in and help him get dressed for a new day. Whenever she was about to set off for the prince's room, all other maids winced and pouted at her in jealousy. She secretly enjoyed that.

The maid arrived at the prince's chamber at a bit early to seven. She knocked on the door lightly, excusing herself to enter.

"Good morning, you are early today, Hannah."

Unfortunately for her however, the prince did not seem to have the trouble of waking up by himself. Therefore he needed not assistance from someone to do so. Every time, every single time she arrived, the prince had already awake and fully dressed. She sighed softly before lowered her head in respect, "Good morning, Your Highness. You are early today too."

The prince returned her greeting with a smile.

At the age of twenty-one, the young crown prince stood out as the most handsome man throughout the entire imperial family. His golden locks that stopped just a little bit above the nape of his neck, his sapphire eyes always shine like a vast and deep blue sky. Rumours had it if ones got caught too long into the depth of his eyes; there would be no way for them to return back except accepting their fate and drowning within it.

Prince Scifo also famous among the servants due to his kind nature. He treated everyone with fairness and a polite manner. The Imperial Knights also looked up to him as a role model Commandant, with excel skill in swordsmanship, and a selfless capability to lead and sacrifice himself for the people.

The prince had always been the love interest of lots of noble ladies, and countless marriage offers had been sent to him, and yet he accepted none. That matter had been going around as the chitchat topic of the maids. Some believed that the prince had no intention of marrying until he became king. Some said that because he already had someone he loved.

Today, the prince clad himself in a white coat that hung casually above his thigh, with blue satin line on the hem of the sleeves and high button up collar. His white pants contrasted with black high collar boots. He always looked good with white, and blue, it complemented his eyes and hair in a gentle touch of dignified beauty.

Lost in her thoughts, she did not notice the voice of the prince asking her if there was anything else she needed to do. She immediately apologized and closed the door behind her as she retreated back to her other works. She could only sighed because no matter how much she fantasized; she knew that he was too high of a wish for a servant girl. However, there was no cost for hoping, so she kept on wishing that one day, His Highness would look at her differently.

* * *

Flynn had woken up early that morning, because he had an important ceremony to attend later in the afternoon. His commandant attire had been laid out yesterday night. Three years ago, he had his coming of age ceremony, as a part of the tradition was to have one of his wish granted. He had asked to carry out the responsibility of an Imperial Commandant. Since the previous Commandant Alexei Dinoia just recently passed away due to illness. The position itself had been left as it was for a few months; since they had not able to pick someone that had all the needed potential to be one. It was Flynn perfect chance to voice his request. He remembered seeing lots of Council members grasped in surprise, and a smiling face of his father. Until now, the Commandant title was usually handed down by one of the higher members of the Imperial Knight. Thus, having the crown prince undertook the task was not only causing a break in ancient tradition, but also a wave of disapproving from the Knights and the Council members. After quite a hard time convincing them, making them aware of his unending determination, they finally agreed to leave the title to Flynn under one condition. He would have to lead a campaign to exterminate a large scale rebellion organization, in which he successfully not only returned alive, but also destroyed the last seed of the rebellious force. All the knights-who returned with him after that mission had all kneeled down in front of the castle, swearing by the names and swords they were carrying that they would accept him as their leader, and to serve him till the very end. The crown prince's dedication to his duty, along with excellent skill in his sword, and an undeniable honor's recognition from the knights had finally put a stop to his protesters. One year later, Flynn was officially recognized as the first crown prince to ever make it into being the Commandant, who led the entire army of the empire. He had made a difference, by being the Commandant; he was one step closer to his ambition of changing the whole system. He would limit the authority of the Council by bringing up the power of the Imperial Knight, and dividing the power into three with the King being one of them. This ideal triangle system of his would allow more flexible and dynamic points of view in ruling the country. He would not let the council members monopolize everything anymore. He knew that the Council would make it harder for him to move towards this goal. However, he determined to change this country for better, into a place where no kids had to separate from their friends.

He stepped out of the room, feeling the need to take in some air. Later this afternoon, there would be held an accolade at the castle's square for the new promoted-knights. Every once in a year would this ceremony be held, and Flynn-as being the Commandant could not unattended.

The prince walked down the corridor, intending to take a break at the garden, before he remembered that he needed to visit his princess sister since he had left a precious thing at her place yesterday for it to be taken care of. With his destination set in mind, Flynn turned right and headed straight for the Princess Quarter.

"Please come in."

"Estellise! Am I disturbing you?"

"Oh brother, please come in."

His younger by three years princess leapt into his arms, hugging him tight. Her silky pink hair ran softly between his fingers. Despite being eighteen years old, she was still such an innocent girl. However, her knowledge about the world was equal that of his, except he had seen the reality of most aspects by having the knight privilege to travel around for duties, while she could not. Sometimes, he felt lucky because despite being the King, his father had not had the chance to experience the outside as much as he was able to.

"Oh, come here brother. The task that you entrusted me from yesterday is done." A beautiful smile dashed across her face as she pulled him along with her.

She approached her desk, picking up a black box and handed it over to him.

Flynn received the box from her, and opened it. Resides inside the box was a piece of earring made of black stone. The very same stone that Yuri-his childhood friend gave him eight years ago. After that, he had it polished and made it into an earring, so it could be with him all the time.

"From the look of it, this stone is just as normal as other jewellery gem. But if you have a look closer, it is actually a crystallized form of highly condensed aer. Usually, highly condensed aer is of red color and is poisonous. And I have never read of something that said aer could be crystallized and turned black like this." The princess put one finger on her chin, lost in thoughts.

"Then it is truly a special thing" Flynn took the stone out and put it on, the warm feeling it gave him despite the coldness pressed against his ear was something entirely different. It was the warm feeling of a first bond of friendship that lightened his path, and gave him courage to continue fighting for his goal. People who know him well would be able to pick up his habit of touching his earlobe while he was busy thinking or in stress. That included his princess sister.

"Yes, it is indeed truly special." Estellise nodded. A few days after Yuri's and his family departure, her brother was finally in the mood for talking. Then he told her everything about Yuri, and the time that both of them spent playing with each other. She admired them both; they were brave enough to start a bond that was obvious to them that could never last. The princess secretly wished she could have such courage to sneak out and make friends like her brother did.

"Time has passed so fast, do not you agree brother?"

The prince had invited his sister to go a stroll at the garden. He needed to relax his mind before the ceremony. Even though this was not his first time holding a speech in front of others, yet every time he did this, his heart could not settle down. Flynn already had the entire speech on his mind, after two years carefully planning for his goal. Today, he would make a statement or more like a direct declaration of war to the Imperial Council. He would begin his next course of action in the plan of Triangle System that he had in mind. He wondered if the Knights would agree to this or not, but he would have to do this.

"Yes it has. Years had passed with a blink of an eye."

Both of them sat down on a marble bench, drowning themselves in the gentle wind of the garden near spring-the lily garden. Eight years ago, this was the place that he first met Yuri. The flowers here reminded him so much of that raven-haired. Since Yuri…after all was named after this flower.

The princess always seemed to read what was on his mind, when she suddenly asked, "It has been eight years, do you think he will come back?"

In truth, that question had been bugging his mind for a while now. Eight years was a long period enough for ones to give up. Anyone, but not him. He believed in the promises that they made that day at the primrose field. For eternity…

He nodded in answer to his sister; the unwavering light in his eyes was enough to bring a reassured smile on her small face.

They kept on exchanging topics regarding politics with the Princess enthusiastically asked questions as Flynn calmly answered everyone of them. The mini session of lecture ended when a knight interrupted them to remind the Prince that it was almost time for the accolade. He needed to go back to his chamber to get ready. Flynn dismissed the knight back to his duty before he excused himself from his sister and promised that he would come back later tonight to read books with her.

She nodded and wished him good luck with the ceremony in which he deeply appreciated.

* * *

Flynn returned back to his room, the maids were already there to help him get dressed. Not that he needed this many people to help him. However, this formal commandant attire was quite different and more complicated from his usual armor.

After around half an hour passed, Flynn looked at his reflection on the mirror. As usual, he clad in an armor, which was bigger and heavier than the one he usually wore, and a long blue white cape flying at the back. His sword was hung around his waist just where it usually was. He took a few seconds to look at himself, wearing formal Commandant clothing, and it brought a smile on his face, and to other maids that were stealing a glance at him.

Once all he was fully dressed up, two other Captains who were his second in command arrived and escorted him to the castle square. One was an orange haired female knight; her name was Sodia. Her effort and a keen sense of responsibility were the traits that Flynn entrusted her to be his direct subordinate. The other one was quite a laid back man in his forties. Despite looking like a good for nothing knight, this man was a hero at the Great War ten years ago. Moreover, his network connection to the Guild Union was something that could prove to be useful in the near future. To the Knights, his name was Schwann, but to the Guild, the name Raven was equally famous. Personally, he had known Captain Schwann when he was still young, and he put a great deal of trust in this man.

"How is the preparation for the ceremony?" He walked down the hall, while the two Captains followed right behind him.

Sodia was the one to answer most of his questions, and was always the one that helped him with documents and paper works. "Everything is completed, Sir. All the new knights are already gathered at the square. Everyone is expecting your presence."

"Good work, Captain."

The prince stopped in his track, just before the door that lead outside, where he would face hundreds of people in a very few seconds. He took a deep breath, collecting himself, and then motioned for the guards to open it, and he stepped through. Traces of afternoon sunlight hit harshly on his eyes, but it was not going to waver his resolution to express his feeling and vision to the new knights to be. He stepped into the light, as noises of conversations suddenly died down to leave the whole air hung in absolute silence.

He moved forward, straightened himself up, his expression changed serious as he stopped, taking a total view over the curious eyes of hundreds people that were now focusing on him. It seemed the number of knight who passed the recruitment this year was higher than the previous ones.

"Greeting to everyone, I am Flynn Sidos Heurassein Scifo, your Commandant and your Prince. I sincerely congratulate all of you who had done their best to overcome the challenges of the recruitment exam. And I am deeply appreciated your resolve to offer your services to the country."

Flynn inhaled, straightened himself up again, before continued, "As you may have heard, I am the Commandant of the Imperial Knight, and also the Crown Prince of this country, the very first Prince to be made a Commandant. Since ancient days, the Imperial Knight, even though had carried out lots and lots of important tasks for the country, yet, our efforts are not officially recognized and we do not have a say in decisions that involved with the lives and living of our people. The reason for this was because most of the authority was being monopolize by the Council. They issued most of our orders and expected us to perform it perfectly, without acknowledged our efforts, and refrained us to participate in decisions that could affect our lives. Because of that, I would like to make a change, I would like for our effort to be take noticed, to be appreciated more, and to be able to take part in those decisions that affected the whole nation. We-who are always putting our lives on the line to protect this country, is it not strange that we have no right to know and understand where we are being sent off to, and what we are going to do? With that in mind, I-Commandant and Prince Scifo will strike to bring the rights and things that we deserved to have. Once again, I welcomed every single one of you, and I humbly asking for your participation to this vision of mine. Because, I know, that I cannot do this alone without the help from everyone. I want to change this country into a better place, where achievement would be appreciated, where unjust will face punishment. Where…you can call the person next to you…your friend." His hand unconsciously reached up to touch the black earring. "Thank you everyone, officially today, all of you are Imperial Knights and I welcome you to join our family."

Flynn put his arm in front of his chest, over his heart, which was now beating faster than usual. The silence still ruled the air, he wondered if his words could reach the hearts of the others. What if they did not answer to his pledge? What if he miscalculated the timing and this was too soon to make such a crazy and outright declaration.

His hand started to shake due to nervousness. The deadly silence did not help him either.

Just then, suddenly in the crowd, someone put up their fist and yelled, "Long live the Imperial Knights, long live Commandant Scifo!" Then few more people, and ten, twenty, hundred, and hundreds of excited roars tore apart the silence. The whole castle ground trembled violently to the sound. Not only the new knights, but also all the captains who were presented at the ceremony to other knights throughout the entire castle were all stood up and chanting the same thing. Flynn could feel overwhelming happiness that he was drowning in. Sodia had burst into tears, while Captain Schwann smiled gently at him. There was no word that could describe his feeling at the moment. It was a mixed of happiness, blended with anxiety. Now lots of people would place their hope and dream on him, he could not allow himself to fail them. But that was the matter of later; right now he would allow himself a bit of joy.

Turning on his heels, Flynn hid a content smile to himself. Then, suddenly, his left ear throbbed right where the aer stone was. He brought his hand up, touching it in reflex. 'Yuri?'

A gust of wind washed against his face, touching his cheek in a playful embrace. A refreshing wind of the same feel of freedom that a certain raven haired boy had brought to him eight years ago. The scent of flower that was brought along was of a flower that he knew all too well, primrose.

'I have grown to be stronger than the useless kid I once was, where are you now Yuri?'

Most of the Knights were dispatched to their stations not long after the accolade ceremony had ended. Only those that had passed the exam with high scores were kept behind and assigned to the Imperial Guards, which were under direct command from the Commandant and his second in commands. They would be patrolling the castle and the capital, and be the guards of royalty. After the main part of the ceremony came a next important event, where the Commandant and a few volunteered new knights from the Imperial Guards would engage in a friendly sparring match. This was also a part of the accolade ceremony, and it was crucial for the Commandant to get to know his knights, and for some of the knights to impress the Commandant with their skills, in hope of being entrusted with more responsibilities that could provide more chances of climbing higher.

Flynn-escorted by Sodia returned to his room to change into a lighter armor which allowed him to move around easier for the sparring later on. He sat down on the chair, looking out the window, feeling better than before now that he knew the Imperial Knight all agreed to be on his side.

A knock on his door reminded him that he needed to go for the practice ground where the sparring would be held. He quickly stood up, fixing his arms and legs armor. He left his sword on the table because it was useless since they were going to use a wooden one, just to prevent serious injuries.

The practice ground was crowded with knights-around two hundreds of them-according to Sodia's report. When the presence of the Commandant was announced, everyone straightened up and went into silence.

Sodia was the one to spoke to announce the start of the sparring matches on behalf of the Commandant. She then asked for volunteers from the new knights, who would want to have a match with the Commandant. In order to become a Commandant, ones of a noble status did not matter, that person needed to have a good vision, a board knowledge and also excellent in swordsmanship. Ever since becoming Commandant, Flynn had not lost to anyone. Those who wrongly underestimated him and challenged him to a duel all ended up failing miserably. And rumors sure had wings, after beating up ten knights in a row on his first year of attending the friendly match as Commandant; the numbers of challengers went down over the years. Last year, they only had two brave volunteers, one of them was Sodia. Obviously that she could not win against him, however, her effort and determination were what had helped her rising up the rank considerably for just over a year.

It seemed that things were going to be the same as last year, since there was no hand raised up as a sign of volunteering. Flynn sighed disappointedly. It was nice to see that they were on his side, but he did question their loyalties and their courage individually. Courage was the most necessary thing for a knight, if they did not possess such trait, they would not be able to give up their lives for the people and the country. Besides, it was not like they would use real swords to spar.

Sodia was getting fidgeted; she did consult the Commandant about this matter beforehand. If none of them would volunteer, she would have to go down and pick someone. Getting an approved nod from Commandant Scifo, she stepped forward; about to pick someone before a sudden rise of hand caught her eyes.

"It seems we finally got a volunteer. Please step out here."

The rows of people started moving and gave way to the 'going to be beat up miserably' volunteer. From afar, all Flynn could make out was that person was about the same build as him, and approximately the same height. His long black mane swung softly in unison with each of his movements. The Commandant took a few steps forward, taking in his entire feature. It would seem he was joking if he said that this person was a perfect match for him, but he was not. Everything about this man's appearance gave him the feels of equality. From the way his muscles clenched firmly under the armors to how tall he stood. However, the most captivated things that Flynn felt himself got caught in was his black eyes. Those that could read the mind of the opposite person easily. Flynn shifted a bit uncomfortably, but he quickly regained his composure, and extended his hand towards the knight.

"I admire your braveness to volunteer, and congratulation is in order."

The knight took his hand in for a firm shake, before releasing it.

"Would you state your name to me, knight?"

The raven-haired knight opened his mouth to speak for the first time, "If the Commandant can defeat me in the match, then I will let you know my name."

Flynn heard Sodia's yelled 'insolent', but he waved his hand for her to stop. This man not only had courage, but he seemed to have guts. Flynn smiled, feeling his pride boiled up by the nonchalant smirk that the other man splashed at him. The match would be promising.

Both of the man went to fighting stances, swords readied in their hand. Their eyes focused on the other, studying their opponent's moves. Even after Sodia's shouting marked the beginning of the match; neither of them intended to make the first move. The whole practice ground went silent, as everyone was concentrated.

Those black eyes that fixed on his blue ones suddenly closed, and then burst opened in a moment of one second as the knight lunged forward at a godly speed, at least to other people but not for Flynn. The Commandant brought his sword in front of him in the act of defence, making a sound of clash against the sword of the other. 'This man is skilled' he thought to himself as he gazed into those black orbs again.

"You are not so bad Commandant."

"You too."

The knight put more force into the sword, and Flynn could felt himself being driven back. The commandant kneeled down on his right leg, as he leaned on the ground for strength as he pushed upward with newfound posture power. It managed to push back the raven haired knight and took advantage of the opening; Flynn plunged forwards, thrusting his sword through the other's side as the latter dodged it just in time.

"That was close! You almost break my ribs there." The knight faked a hurt expression.

"I am so sorry; you may as well want to look out for your head." As Flynn replied back in mirth.

The fight went on with each of them took turn attacking and defending. The knight's long lock of hair floated softly against the wind as he charged and dodged; yet never seemed to get in his line of vision. A bright smile never left his lips. It went on long enough, making the others kept on watching their moves intensely. It was the first time Sodia saw such a person who could match the Commandant's strength, he moved in a sloppy motion yet left none opening for the Commandant to counterattack.

Flynn continued to attack while looking for some kind of opening to strike for. The fact that this man was left-handed made it harder for him to predict his next move. He was too used to right handed opponents that he found it difficult to counter an attack from the left.

Left…now that he thought about it, and he had been finding it was a bit strange but for some reason, despite being left handed, the knight did not seem to put too much force via the left side of his body. As if he was just playing around with the Commandant and Flynn's blood boiled at the fact that the man was not serious at all. He decided to push more of his strength onto the left of his opponent provoking him to put up more effort.

The knight seemed to understand the Commandant's intention as seeing how his face expression turned a bit… panic? Flynn could not believe what he was seeing. But he had not been wrong about reading one's emotion, since he trained to do that since he was young, being able to read your enemy's expression would give you advantage in reading his movement.

And suddenly, the knight's movements became a bit disoriented, for Flynn this would be his perfect chance to finish this fight. With where to attack in mind, Flynn put more strength into each of his thrust of swords, forcing the man to move back until, he stumbled upon a piece of rock, losing his balance along with concentration.

"This is it." Flynn shouted, plunged the wooden sword through the man's black hair, towards his left shoulder. The man had not yet have the time to recover, upon seeing how Flynn's attack was coming at him, he grasped in terror, as he barely dodged the sword where it sliced a little bit close to his ear. He trembled backwards, and finally lost his balance for good and ended up on the ground with Flynn's sword at his neck.

"That concluded the match, the winner is Commandant Scifo." Sodia announced, as everyone seemed to finally recover from shock and all burst out in big applause.

Flynn and the dark haired knight both heaved in heavy breathings. Flynn looked at his fallen opponent in between his breath, the man's expression was still somewhere between shock and panic. He put up his hand and reached for his left ear, caressing it gently before let out a relived sigh. Was the reason because of his ear?

"So…you beat me, good job Commandant." The man smiled, scratching his head. "That was mean though, you could have found some other way to defeat me without me crashing against my butt. It's embarrassing." He pouted.

And Flynn found himself laughing at that. He pulled back his sword, and offered out his hand, in which the other man took it immediately. He whined, while dusting off mud and dust from his uniform. "And this uniform is new too."

"I am deeply sorry. I will send a maid to wash your uniform later." Flynn smiled widely. The match was just as exciting as he expected. It had been a long time since he found someone of that equals to him in strength and ability.

"So, now that I had defeated you. I will ask you again. What is your name, knight?"

"You sure haven't changed, still using that kind of boringly long speech. Didn't I tell you to just go right into the point?"

"Huh?"

"My name is Yuri…Yuri Lowell, Your Highness."

And Flynn felt like the whole world was spinning around him. A mix between light-headed and a bit of dizziness graced his head as he trying to register the turn of event. But he quickly regained his composure, smiling at the knight, congratulating him once again and he then walked away. As seeing no more volunteer was brave enough to challenge the Commandant after witnessing such intense match, the ceremony finally concluded.

* * *

Flynn Sidos Heurassein Scifo was happy. Today was definitely the best day in his life yet. After dinner, just as promised, he accompanied his princess sister to the library and helped her with her studies.

"Brother, you looked really happy." She suddenly commented.

Flynn picked up his head from his book he was finding hard to concentrate on the contents, crooked his eyebrows because of a suddenly weird exclamation from his sister.

"Cause you have been smiling all this time."

And Flynn blushed hard at that. Probably he was just too easy to read, or too obvious to read.

The Princess urged him to tell her the reason for his overwhelming happiness, in which he was more than happy to comply. He told her how the ceremony went with everyone agreed to fight alongside him, and how he had a spar with a very excellent knight, and that person turned out be Yuri, his childhood friend actually came back for him, as a knight.

"So he really came back!" The princess squealed in excitement, jumping up and knocked off the chair in the process. She seemed to be even more excited than him.

* * *

After finished their studies together, Flynn escorted his sister back to her chamber, and she had asked him to introduce her to Yuri next time, in which Flynn had promised her to do so. But now, he would be the one in need of seeing Yuri.

Right after the ceremony ended, Flynn had instructed Sodia to summon the black haired knight to his study room later that night. He wanted to speak to that amazing swordsman about the match that happened today. Luckily, Sodia did not seem to have any questions.

"Please excuse us."

The door to the Commandant's study room swung opened as his second in command entered, right behind her followed the black haired knight.

"You are dismissed, thank you Sodia."

The girl lowered herself in respect as she left the room, closing the door behind her. She stole a last glance at the Commandant. Why did she feel a bit of uneasiness in her heart?

After making sure that the footsteps outside went unheard, the prince finally looked up from his paper works only to be met by a very same pair of longing black eyes. A small smile graced on the blonde's lips, as he muttered, "Yuri…you are really Yuri right?"

The smile he received in return was the very same one of a genuine smile that he still remembered from eight years ago. If anything were different, it would be the smile got more mysterious, matched his slightly messy long hair in a perfect picture.

"Ah…yes? My name is indeed Yuri Lowell" Yuri tilted his head to the sides, looking at him in confusion as if he just asked the most stupid ones out of anything that he could have said to his long lost childhood friend.

Sometimes Flynn wondered if his legs and body had a mind of their own, because the next thing he knew, he was standing right in front of the raven haired man, staring deep into those black eyes that he could only see in his dream once the night falls. The memories of those days were still there, in his mind, vividly like it just happened yesterday. Their laughter filled up the atmosphere of the Lower Quarter when they were playing tag, or splashing water against each other.

Comparing to his last memories of him, Yuri indeed had grown into a fine young man. His face was smaller, and also his eyes, although the light that reflected within was nevertheless the same. Still the same mischievous and fearless kid from before.

"Flynn…or am I supposed to address you as Commandant Scifo now?" Yuri arched his eyebrow in an amusing shift of movement. Now that he was his Commandant and his Prince, should he start showing him some respect? But, being respectful was not somewhere in his agenda.

The prince laughed at that upon seeing his friend's expression, he shook his head, replied "You would be expected to address me as _Commandant Scifo_ or _Sir_ during works and public. However, when it is just the two of us…I would be happy if you can call me by my name like you used to in the past."

'Because, just by the sight of you, calling my name, I feel like I could forget about everything else in this world and just be myself.' Flynn thought admittedly.

A slight nod from the raven haired and a sarcastic comment on how he did not want to say his surname every time, since apparently to Yuri, it was more complicated than his given name. How more complicated it was, Flynn failed to understand.

The prince was about to turn around and offer his friend a seat, when a sudden touch on his ear made him jumped in surprise. Yuri's hand reached up and was now touching his earlobe right at the spot where the stone was. The look in his eyes softened, as cold fingers caressed against the stone surface, and Flynn could feel his ear burned against the coldness.

His friend kept on caressing the stone for a few more seconds, to Flynn felt more like hours had passed before he finally let go of the blonde's ear. He looked aside, whispering, "You seem to have taken good care of it."

Yuri then reached up and tucked a few strands of stray hair behind his ear, revealing an identical stone on his earlobe. Flynn opened his eyes in surprise. Now that explained why the other was uneasy when he was attacked near that area. Yuri told him that he had once lost the stone when he was sparring against a person, and that person went for his left ear, knocking off the earring. Yuri was in an extreme panic, he searched the ground for hours before he finally found it much to his relief. Since then, whenever fighting, he tried to draw people away from his left ear, to avoid hitting on the stone. Well, obviously, it was something of great importance to him.

A sudden warm feeling washed through the Prince's body. That stone was of something great importance to him too. Every time he encountered problems, this earring reminded him that at somewhere, there would be a same person as him who worked hard every day to become stronger. Therefore, he could not give up, not until he fulfilled his promise to that person.

That night, the two of them stayed up late and talked about what happened to each other during the time that they were parted. After leaving the city, Yuri and his parents moved to Dangrest, the city for the biggest and largest guilds to gather. That side of the continent was left alone by the Imperial because they had their own rules, and for some reason the Guild and the Empire does not get along quite well. His father found a job at a guild that offered protection to merchants, while his mother became a waitress at a tavern. Thanks to his father new job, Yuri got the chance to learn sword skills. He made quite a few friends and practice with them every day, in order to become stronger. When he turned legal age, he participated in the guild protection job, and polishing his skill. Until last week, he finally decided to take part in the entrance examination to enter the knighthood.

"You know, back in Dangrest, you are pretty famous. Considering how you eliminate a large-scale organization in a few months. And then becoming the first Prince ever in the history to be made Commandant. I trained, trained and trained every day, so that I could be of a worthy match to you. And finally, I'm here, as a Knight by your side. I won't let that night happened again." The knight eyes locked deep into his sapphire ones, with unwavering determination. "This time I will be the one to protect you."

Flynn turned his head asides, not letting the other noticed that a faint blush was slowly making its way across his cheek. He made a sound to clear his throat as he regained his composure. "Thank you, although I am not so weak of a person in need for your protection."

Yuri laughed hard at that, "Yeah right, your mighty Commandant would never need someone as lowly as me. He can take care of him just fine. Guess I should not have come back after all." Yuri made an attempt to stand up and leave.

The Prince made a sound of protest as he grabbed the black haired man's wrist into a tight grip, yanking him back, "No…I am sorry, I do not mean it like that! I…am really grateful that you came back for me. Thank you for remembering our promise."

"There is no way I would forget it. You are trying your best too, then why wouldn't I?" The raven haired spoke softly, putting up no effort to escape from the other's grip. Not that Flynn intended to let go of that arm anytime soon. He mentally hit himself for having such thoughts, and unconsciously flushed bright red for a moment.

"So Commandant, mind enlightening me with the story of your life from eight years ago till now?" Yuri nudged at his arm, a cue for the blonde to release it, in which Flynn immediately did so. Then he settled down again on the chair, reassured the blonde that he would not go anywhere until he had heard all the stories that he had missed in the past years.

* * *

Morning came finding the prince secretly wished for a bit more time to sleep in. The maids had expressed their concern over this matter, and suggested him going for a check-up. He dismissed all their worries by flashing a golden smile that filled with sunlight as he assured them that he was all right. And possibly, he believed that they were in need of checking up since he saw none reactions from them at all. Their eyes were somewhat between a dreamy and sparkling state. His sister sometimes called this 'fangirl syndrome', and he did not seem to quite understand it.

"Commandant, here is the work for today." Sodia put a stack of documents on his work desk, Flynn eyeing the height of it in disbelief. How came the work seemed to be doubled itself in size just over one night?

As if fully know what was going on Flynn's mind, the girl immediately said, "It seems that your declaration yesterday was an excellent influence. Most of the papers are about other units asking for more information regarding your plan, some are encouragement. And there were some of marriage offers addressed to you. However, I took the liberty of removing them and having Witcher to arrange for proper declination letters."

"Well done, Sodia." He was lucky to have such capable second in command. It was not just the right time to get married, not when Flynn had openly declared himself an enemy with the Imperial Council. Having a love partner at this point would turn her into an unnecessary target for politics.

Besides, he just did not feel like falling in love. None of the lady that he made acquaintances had actually caught his interest. Only…only one person had him actually made him dream about and think of every night.

Then a realization hit him hard and square mentally. He had thought of, and dreamed about Yuri almost every night in his sleep. It was with the determination of fulfilling the promise that he had made to his precious childhood friend. Until yesterday, no such thought as falling for his friend, nor being in love with him had ever registered in his mind. Now that he thought about it, just a mere touch from Yuri would make his heart burned. Just a mere word of affection from him would make his face blushed real shade color of crimson.

Flynn slammed his elbows on the desk, supporting his chin from crashing against the wooden surface, as he looked sideways, blushing hard. After eight years of parting, Yuri had grown up to be a fine young man, with quite a slender body yet strong enough to fight. His black mane had stretched out to the end of his waistline, flowing softly with each of his movements. And those delicious thin lips of him…

"Commandant…are you feeling alright Sir?" The orange haired girl asked in concern, as seeing how the Commandant seemed as if he was like having an internal conflict with himself.

"Eh…Ah…I am fine. I am fine, please do not worry."

He forced a smile to assured the girl. However, in truth, he was not fine, not at all.

* * *

After finished two-third of his documents, it was already past noon, and of course past lunchtime already. So he decided to get something to eat at the castle kitchen. It would be troublesome to ask the maids to prepare food rather than getting some bread himself. Then he would go straight to the practice ground to check on the new knights after that.

It was strange. When he arrived at the kitchen, no one was there. The kitchen was strangely empty. Flynn shrugged his shoulder, walking towards the opposite side of the room where the food storage were. Then, a sudden noise of someone attempted to move from behind him as he turned around immediately. The noise was faint, but it could not escape Flynn's trained ears.

To his surprise, he saw a familiar black haired man, who seemed to try sneaking out of the kitchen with a few loafs of bread in his hands. Seriously?

"What are you doing Yuri?"

"Oh, hi…Commandant Scifo… Good morning."

"In fact, it is already afternoon, however, please do not change the topic. What are you doing here?" Flynn wrapped his arms in front of him, waiting for a reasonable answer from the raven haired man. He did not intend to move from his spot, nor letting the other moved from his.

The knight let out a wryly smile, he scratched his head, "It seems you are no longer the kid that easy to fool."

"I could say the same about you too. And what are you doing with those breads?"

"Well, my practice stretched longer than usual, and no one seemed to do me the favor of saving some food for me, so here I am, getting some bread to stuff myself." Yuri nonchalantly said.

Flynn found himself amazed at the fact on how dedicated the knight was. His group practice was supposed to end for a while already, yet the man himself still continued practicing till now. He could not lose to him; he needed to try his best too.

"Those bastards gonna paid for that." The knight pouted, eyes lit up with mirth and mischievousness.

And how cute it was. The prince did not realize that he was smiling from ears to ears, before the raven-haired tapped him gently on the shoulder, pulling him back from his mental wonderland. He cleared his throat uncomfortably, regaining his composure. He had been wondering how many had he had to gather his composure in front of this man. Flynn started to not behave like himself anymore, ever since meeting Yuri.

After fulfilling his stomach's need, the prince and his knight decided to go and have a stroll. Since Yuri had managed to talk him into not visiting the practice ground since there was no one there during this break hour.

Since they were already at the kitchen, Yuri suggested going for the lily garden, as seeing it was closer, and Yuri have not had the time to see that garden since he came back to the castle. Flynn was happy to accompany him, since that place was special for him -the place where he met Yuri-his true friend for the first time.

"This place has not changed much." Yuri remarked.

Yes, ever since eight years ago, Flynn had made the point clear for the new gardeners that they could do as they saw fit with other parts of the garden, except this one. He needed them to maintain the garden just as it was, no changes were allowed, despite a minor one.

"Oh that's right. I have something to show you." Yuri suddenly said after the two of them settled down on a bench. Flynn gave off a puzzled look. Something to show him…again? He would not intend to talk him into sneaking out of the castle again, yes?

Seeing the look from the prince's face, Yuri burst out laughing, "Nah, don't worry. I'm not asking you to sneak out or anything. Besides, you don't have to anymore."

Well it was true that he did not need to sneak out anymore, however, the guy here was Yuri Lowell, who knew what mischief was he up to. Although, to be honest, it was nostalgic for him to jump a bit at any suggestion that came from the other.

The raven haired brought two of his fingers in his mouth, and whistled. In less than a few seconds, Flynn saw the bush nearby crunched, as a small figure of something not definitely human appeared. The Commandant acted on his reflex, reaching towards the hilt of his sword, ready to pull it out any second now. But Yuri stopped him in his track, telling him to stay put with calm expression. Flynn looked at him in confusion then shifted his eyes to the creature, which started to approach him slowly.

"Relax, you are going to give him a wrong impression." In which he followed his friend's advice since he also did not sense any hostile intent from it.

The creature took a bit of time before completely revealed itself before the blonde. Flynn wide opened his eyes in surprise. In front of him was a hound of blue and white, its tail waved softly behind him in a shape of a lightning bolt. Some sort of injury damaged one of his eyes, while the creature looked at him, carefully.

Having no idea on what to do next, Flynn turned over to Yuri for help. But the other man only smiled at him, nudging him gently on the elbow, motioned him to approach the dog first.

And so he did, Flynn slowly sat down to the dog level, looked at him in his eye, searching for some sort of reassured feeling that the dog was not going to bite him. He reached his hand, hesitantly at first, and finally pat the dog in the head. The dog stayed still for a few seconds, before the soft fur on his head began to lean into the blonde's touch, and the dog suddenly tackled him to the ground.

"Re…Repede?" The prince asked, uncertainly. It gave off a happy bark, licking his face repeatedly.

"Glad you remember him." Yuri sat down next to both of them, patting the dog's fur in a gentle stroke.

"My…how you have grown." The prince was obviously happy to see the dog again. And it seemed the dog was thinking the same thing as he kept on snuggled against the blonde's chin.

"You looked handsome Repede."

He heard a 'thank-you' bark from the dog, boring his eye at him. That made him wonder what happened to cause such an injury. He touched over the yellow scar that had blinded his left eye.

"Yuri, what happened to his other eye?"

"Well, he got hurt during a fight with some kind of wolf monsters. I gotta say that Repede himself was actually quite proud of that. Right, Repede?"

Repede let out another bark, this time it was a noise between satisfaction and pride. Flynn found himself smiling at that. As he looked at the handsome hound, "Too bad that it is against the rule to keep a pet inside the castle."

"I can always register him as a warrior dog. Repede can already fight using a dagger. And I tell you, he is one hell of a vicious fighter."

The look in Yuri's eyes, and how there was a dagger with golden hilt hung near his neck did explain it. Needless to say, he was convinced, "Welcome you to the Imperial Knight, Repede." Flynn stroke the hound's head, which earning him yet another bark.

"So Repede, why don't you show the great Commandant here what you can do?"

The dog snorted in disinterest, before turned on his feet, and lying sleepily against the blonde's feet. He yawned, and then closed his eye, soon fast asleep.

Flynn laughed so hard at the expression of the raven haired. The comment on how Repede already got all friendly with the prince so fast and a childish pout from him did not help Flynn stop laughing.

He could felt that his heart continue to beat fast yet strangely at peace whenever he was around the said raven haired man. The more time he spent with Yuri, the more he felt as though he could be with him forever. Yuri…made him forget that he was the Commandant, the Prince with lots of responsibilities weighted on his shoulder, and just be himself, just a man with the name Flynn and nothing else. He secretly hoped that moments like these would last forever.

However, fate did not exactly want to go easy on both of them. Their peaceful moment did not last long.

* * *

Yup! Next chapter is the last one. There would possibly an epilogue too, but I will see. Thank u for reading, and I apologize any weird writings.

A/n: Btw, did you guys notice I change the cover of the story. I designed that cover myself, from the cosplay, the concept, the editing. I love how it turned out to be fitted with the story XDDD


	4. The Sight of Future

Hi there everyone. Thank you for reading through this story, and this is the last part of it, it is also the longest chapter I have ever written.

Again, please excuse any weird mistakes and writings and massive OOC-ness. Other than that, please enjoy!

* * *

That morning found Flynn being summoned by the Imperial Council. They wanted him and his knights to carry out monster extermination at northern IIycia continent. For some unknown reason, the monsters started to gather in large hordes, and it caused the people restless worries. He received the message last night and intended to hold a meeting with his captains this morning, discussing about the dispatch of the soldiers. However, the Council got to him first and here he was, listening to their worthless complaints.

After being dismissed from the room, Flynn straightened himself and made his way towards the Imperial Knights quarter. He had no time to waste.

The knights were dispatched immediately at the afternoon, with Flynn directly led the whole army. And of course, Yuri was there with him too, as part of his personal soldiers.

Upon their arrival at the Hallure City, the knights started gathering up information on the hordes of monsters. After issuing orders, Flynn returned to his camp and checked on his equipment, making sure everything was in place before he headed out for the battle.

"Be careful out there, Commandant." The raven haired swordsman whispered against his ear just as he walked past him.

"You too, Yuri." Flynn whispered back in reply. After spending four months sparring, and fighting alongside with Yuri, he learned that the other swordsman was pretty careless. He fought with a style that did not use a shield. That was why he always tended to use his body for taking the damage, well his right side of the body. Therefore, Flynn felt the need to teach him some of his moves for the reckless man to better protect himself, and Yuri mastered all of them surprisingly fast. Then he modified it to match his style, in which sending Flynn off in rage. All of his efforts were after all in vain. Such incorrigible, undisciplined and hard headed individual.

"Commandant sir, all the knights are in position, awaiting your order." Sodia came up to him, informed him of the situation. He nodded his head and approached the soldiers, issuing his orders again before army of soldiers ran off according to their planned formation.

The hordes of monsters were more ferocious and bigger than he had expected. Flynn found himself getting exhausted by each passing seconds. Around him, the soldiers were showing sign of tiredness while the monsters just kept on charging ahead. He needed to pull back his troops and waited for more reinforcement. As it might seem, the monsters had definitely decreased in number, so it would be a wiser idea to withdraw and reinforced for tomorrow.

From afar, he saw Sodia made a sign, asking him whether to issue a retreat. He nodded his head sharply, yelling to the soldiers on top of his lung to withdraw. His order was spread quickly among the knights, despite the noises of fighting hanging around the air. The soldiers started to move backwards, slowly making their way off the battleground group by group.

He raised his sword up, clashing against a sharp claw of a monster with a shriek sounding of metal against metal. His other free hand pulled into a fist and thrown forward, hitting the monster square in its face, pushing it back just as Yuri slipped behind its back and slit the ugly creature in two.

The raven haired knight flashed him a grin, then immediately dashed away to finish yet another beast. Where was the other going? Did not he already issue a retreat order? Flynn ran up to the man, his back against him. Repede, who was now a full-fledged warrior dog, let out a long howl as it stood bravely besides the two.

"Yuri, we are pulling back." The prince informed his friend, "in case you already forget it, or pretend not to hear it."

"Well, I did hear it, and didn't pretend to overheard it." Yuri replied back, while pushed his sword deep inside a monster's head, "But don't you think someone should stay behind to look over the rear and make sure everyone escaped soundly?"

"That is why I am here, making sure a certain idiotic individual do not get killed in process of trying to be a hero." Obviously, Flynn had already realized what exactly was going on inside that head of the knight. That was why, he was here, to look after the other man's back, to make sure that his recklessness would not cost him his life.

A faint chuckle was heard among the noise of the battlefield, "You must love me so much to go through such length to protect me. I'm touched."

"You wish." The Commandant sidestepped to dodge a somewhat like an eggbear that was charging itself at him, just in perfect timing to narrow himself from the edge of Yuri's sword, which killed off the beast immediately.

"Aw, come on. There is no need to be shy, just admit it." Yuri teased, throwing himself forward in a loop of kicks and slashes of Dragon Swarm.

"I am not being shy!" He insisted harshly, "And Yuri, will you stop adding kicks into Dragon Swarm for god' sake."

"No can do. You know plain stuffs are not my style."

Feeling like there was no point of continuing this pointless argument, Flynn leapt into silence. Despite always being at each other's mouth, Flynn had never felt more alive when he spent moments like these with Yuri. Like right now, fighting alongside with the raven-haired was the most enjoyable time he ever had. He was able to fully concentrate on the enemies in front of him because he knew that someone he could trust with his life was there, watching his back. Not even Sodia, or Schwann or any others could make him feel this relaxed in a fight. None of them were able to read his moves and act in perfect synch with him like Yuri did.

But, how long could this friendship last? They managed to meet each other again after parting, but would that be the same next time and the time after that? It was bad of him to think that this bond he shared with the raven haired was a fragile one. There was not anything to ensure him that this friendship would last for eternity. The thought of suffering another parting wrenched his heart, this time, he could not be certain that believing in the promise alone would be able support his heart. How strange of him, he was not this fragile before, not before meeting Yuri.

"Flynn, behind you."

Flynn immediately turned around at the source of the voice. His eyes registered a big monster, probably a bear charged right into him. He intended to jump out of its track; however, it was too late for him to even raise his sword for defence. All he could see was a flash of black haired flew in front of him, just as the beast's sharp claw dug deep inside the other man's stomach. The impact forced out a wretched cry from him, as he struggled to push back the monster.

Seeing the crimson liquid flowed out like water from his friend's body snapped Flynn back to reality. He thrust his sword forward, piercing the creature right in its heart. It died instantly from the attack as Yuri collapsed to the ground, blood gushed out loudly, staining the blue uniform with red.

Flynn kneeled down beside him; dead terror flooded his mind as his fingers brushed across the knight's cheek unconsciously. He could see the wound there in the other's stomach, and blood continuously flowed out from the open injury. He tried to hold back his tears, biting his lips so furiously that it bled. He loathed himself for spacing out in a fight, now terrible thing happened to his friend, all because of his fault. "Hang in there, Yuri, please." He called desperately, hopefully it would reach him.

He slipped the other man's hands around his neck, as he carried him on his back. His heart throbbed hearing Yuri groaned in pain. He ran through the already thin layers of monsters with all his might. Some of the soldiers pushed the monster aside, giving way to him.

He could not lose Yuri here, not now not ever. The raven haired's soft breath against his neck started to grow heavy, as he coughed out blood. Flynn increased in his speed in desperation, feeling like the path back to town stretched insanely long. Repede ran along sides him, let out sound of whimper. Even though speechless, both of them were praying that they would get to Halure in time.

It only took him a few seconds to run up to the inn, yelling at the innkeeper for an empty room, before shouting again at a guard to send for a doctor. The guard seemed to space out, because he looked back at him, unsure on what exactly to do. However, not until Repede's patience worn out that he let out a furious bark, growling angrily at the guard with his fur stood at an end that the man finally dashed out of the inn at lightning speed to get a doctor.

Flynn pushed open the door to the empty room with his leg, and then carefully placed the injured man on the bed. His heart sank when the man groaned in pain at the contact. He quickly removed the sash on his uniform and pressed it firmly over the cut on the man's stomach, preventing the blood from coming out.

Right then, a man in white coat and a girl came rushing into the room. It must be the doctor and his assistant, as Flynn turned around, relived. The doctor made a quick bow before asking him to leave the room, and began working on the treatment. Not until he finally stole a painful glance at the injured man that he reluctantly dragged himself out of the room with Repede trailing behind him.

Finding himself a bench on the hallway, he settled himself. Only then he took note at the state he was in. His white uniform stained with blood, as well as his hands, and a part of his face too. What a terrible sight. Ever since he commenced the position of the Commandant, this was the first time he got this much blood stained on him. If anything was to happen to Yuri… Flynn could not bear himself to face the worst. It was his entire fault that Yuri was injured, if he was more careful, then none of this would never happen. Flynn cursed stupidly at himself, he was always the one yelling at the other man to concentrate, yet. The thought of losing Yuri surfaced up in his heart again. He felt terrible, what if he would never wake up, what if those black eyes would never look at him again? What if he would never going to see those careless grins from Yuri? They did not meet each other after eight years only to be parted again for eternity, right? The black earring gave off a hot feeling, it tingled against his ear in a throbbing manners. It burned, and he could feel his heart shattered at such thoughts. Yuri was the one who brought light to him, showing him the world outside and set him free from his cage. He was the one that taught him to remember how to fly. He would not have made it here if it were not for him, the 'him' right now was born because of Yuri. Clinging on the promise that they had exchanged, he fought his way up towards the goal of changing this empire. If Yuri was not here anymore, what was the point for him to continue fighting senselessly? If the person he dedicated it to would not be a part of that world?

His whole body started trembling as he blamed himself silently; tears flowed down his bloodstained cheek in a distorted motion. Why he had not realized that sooner? All the things he had done up until now was the resolve that Yuri gave him, all of them were for Yuri and because of Yuri. Probably, since way before, the raven-haired man had already become a part of his life. He just did not realize it sooner. Repede moved in closer to him, snuggled against his leg, while giving off a whimpered snort. The hound's blue fur clung stickily together in the crimson substance. It must be uncomfortable as well as the blood on him. But he had to heart at this moment to go and wash himself, not until he knew that Yuri was all right. He gently patted on the blue fur, calming the dog, in the act of comforting himself too.

After hours had passed, and to Flynn it seemed like an eternity before the doctor finally stepped out of the room, motioned him to come closer.

"Doctor, how is his condition?" Flynn asked anxiously.

The doctor gave a nod at the blonde, while wiping his blood stained hands on a wet tower, "Please do not worry! His condition has already stabled, all he is going to need right now is plenty of rest."

A sigh of relief finally escaped his lips, as he felt all the invisible worry had been lifted from his shoulder. He thanked the doctor before entering the room and closed the door behind him. He took in the peacefully sleeping's face of his friend. The color had returned to his previously pale face. His chest moved up and down at an even breathing. Flynn smiled, looking at the man like that no one would believe he had drowned in blood and almost went to heaven just a few moments ago.

He moved closer to the bed, gently pushed aside a few strands of dark hair that had fallen onto the other's sleeping face. He heard Yuri stirred softly in his sleep, snugging towards the warmth of his fingers. Now that Yuri was okay, Flynn finally let himself having the leisure of sinking down on the ground, leaning against the wall for support, as he no longer able to feel his legs. He breathed in the smell of blood, and decided that it was not pleasant, so he pushed himself up, leaving the room to clean up after himself. He could not let Yuri saw him like this. He stripped off the outer layer of the uniform and cape that were stained in blood, revealing a clean black top inside. He drowned both of his hand inside the sink full of water to rid himself off the disturbing substance. Then he looked at himself in the mirror, swollen red eyes from crying, and bruises on his lips from nervously biting. One of his cheeks was covered in blood. He quickly splashed the water onto his face as he rubbed it harshly, trying to remove everything as quickly as possible. However, the taste of Yuri's blood bitterly lingered at his mouth still. He had the urge to continue abusing his face to completely erase all the horrible feeling that crawled up his skin, but he got to get back to his friend as soon as possible. Even though Repede was there, in case anything happened, the dog would inform him immediately. But he needed himself to be there, beside him. After one last wash, he stepped out onto the hall and made his way back to the opposite direction. On his way, Sodia ran up to him, inquired about his well being. She gasped horribly upon seeing the state that Flynn was in. He knew he looked terrible, but he could careless as he handed her his dirty uniform, asking for it to be washed and requested her to take charge until he is back. Sodia protested, saying how it was weird for him to be so bothered by a mere injured knight. Flynn did not remember what did he shout at her, but he recalled seeing her stopped dead in her track, with face drained off of color. However, at that point, she was not his top priority, so he quickly excused himself from her and moving toward the room where his friend was resting. The coherent part of his mind, telling him that once this was over, he would apologize to Sodia properly. But right now, a certain black haired knight was all he could think about.

He carefully opened the door, making sure that it did not disturb his friend. He made his way toward the bed, about to check up on his friend again.

"Nuh…"

A mustering sound against the bed sheet turned his attention to the raven-haired male. His eyes slowly opened, and it wandered around weakly as if to take in the surrounding.

"Where…am I?"

Flynn quickly approached his friend, "A room at the inn, you remembered getting hurt?"

"Ah…yes I am." Yuri made an attempt to sit up, however the injure on his stomach made him winced in pain, he cursed loudly.

"Take it easy Yuri." Flynn put a hand on the back of the man as he slowly lowered him down onto the mattress, "You do not want to open up the wound." He moved to the other side of the room and brought a chair to place it besides the bed and settled himself.

The man reluctantly followed the prince's advice. He brought his hand up and dropped it on his forehead, breathing slowly, "Man, I feel like hell."

"I am so sorry Yuri. You are injured because of me." Flynn casted his eyes downwards, unable to look the man in his eyes.

"There is nothing for you to sorry about. If I got injured in a fight, it only means that I'm not strong enough. Beside, protecting the Commandant is our duty right?" Yuri flashed a nonchalant smile, in which went unseen by Flynn, as he seemed to have taken the fancy in staring at the floor below.

"Still…" he denied, "I could have make it on my own, there was no need for you to throw your life away for me."

"Your life is much more important than me, a mere commoner. Even if I'm gone, there are only so much people that would weep for me. But you, the crown prince and the commandant of the Empire obviously is more important. You are carrying the hope and dream of the people after all."

"Stop degrading your life like yours does not worth anything." Flynn did not realize how raging and high his voice went as the hound and his master both jumped at the same time. But he was so angry that he had no intention of backing down, "You have no idea how importance your life is, and I do not allow you to have such thought about yourself any longer."

Yuri looked at the prince, with eyes wide opened. Then he burst out laughing at how serious the look in those blue eyes was, "Why are you so worked up suddenly?" Flynn shot him a burning glare, as he firmly stated that he was not in any way working up at all.

Unexpectedly, Yuri's expression suddenly turned serious, as he looked over to be met with the blonde's gaze. He opened his mouth, "I did say that I am going to protect you. I will do whatever it takes to ensure that you are alive and striking towards your goal. You are the only reason that I had come this far. If you were to die, there wouldn't be any meaning left for me to move on anymore."

Flynn's heart skipped a beat at that. The feelings were mutual.

Seeing no response from the prince, Yuri pushed on, "Therefore, I would gladly give up my life for you. I had made a resolve to become your sword and shield, and I wouldn't have it if you were to die before my eyes."

"Yuri…" The prince muttered, finding a burning feeling flared up his chest, "You have no idea how I feel when I thought that you are going to leave me behind again. Your blood on my hands, made me realized how important you are to me. Without you, I would not be the person I am right now, fighting so hard to change this country. Our promise eight years ago was the thing that kept me moving forward, and the sight of you beside me, giving me the feeling that I could achieve anything." He adverted his eyes, gently took in the sight of Yuri, as he continued, "It took me the thought of losing you to realize that there is no meaning for me to continue fighting if you are not there by my side." Flynn removed himself from the chair as he leaned over to the bed, hovering above the raven haired man, whose head had turned around to avoid the burning gaze that was directed at him. It took him at the most desperate time to realize his true feeling. He was in love with this man, since long ago.

The blonde prince gently lifted the other's chin, forcing eye's contact, as he brought his lips down to meet the raven haired pale one in a gentle kiss. He could felt Yuri held back a breath, but there was no response from him. Flynn broke the contact, as he pulled away, seeing the blank look from the other. His heart torn apart, feeling immerse of hurt and disappointment welled up his chest. He shook his head, muttered an apology for imposing his feeling on him and getting up. However before he had the chance to completely remove himself from the bed, his arm was yanked back so suddenly that he lost his balance, and fell right on top of the raven haired man. Flynn sighed briefly when he managed not to fall onto the man's wound.

"You did not let me get a chance to response, Commandant."

He felt a hand slipped inside the back of his head as he was tugged downwards, crashing against a pair of hungry lips in a heated kiss. His mind went blank for a second before he finally got over his shock and pushed more into the kiss, drawing a wanting moan from the dark haired under him. He could felt his sanity leaving him from each passing second. Kissing Yuri Lowell was something he had never imagined before, his heart raced furiously as the raven haired kept on pressing down his head, demanding for more. If only breathing was not a necessary thing, the two of them would probably squeeze the life out of the other through the kiss.

Flynn reluctantly pulled back as he breathed in as much air as he needed. Yuri was not in a different state. The raven haired male's chest rose up and down in a fast rhythm to catch his breath. His cheek flushed red from the heated contact. His beautiful dark mane splayed around the pillow like a purple full moon. Such a beautiful sight.

Flynn reached his hand out, caressing the other's cheek in a gentle manner. "Yuri…I love you." He whispered into the black haired ear, earning him a small chuckle from the latter. He cupped his palms against the flush cheek, bringing the other's face closer, "From now on, please value your life. Because whatever you do, half of you will belong to me, I would not tolerate throwing yourself away for my sake."

"Woah…wait a bit there. Since when did I belong to you?" Yuri smirked, rising his eyebrow in joking mirth.

"Since now!" Flynn lowered himself again to wipe that smirk off with a kiss. And he succeeded.

* * *

Yuri was completely recovered from his injury few months later, and he started running around, causing little mischief here and there. Flynn was happy to see him went back to his true self, as it also caused him plenty of headaches to see file of reports about his pranks on other members of the Imperial Council. He had confronted the man about his ill-manner behaviors; however, most of those confrontations seemed to turn into make-out sessions as Flynn lost the arguments against his knight lover.

"Yuri, calm down. There was nothing to get so worked up for." Flynn spoke impatiently over his document, back facing the black haired knight who was storming back and forth inside his office.

The knight shot back, "How can I not work up? You were almost dead, dead as in your head is chopped off your neck, Flynn!"

"But I am still pretty much alive, am I not? Besides, the assassin is already apprehended. He could do anything less than harming me now." The prince calmly stated, trying to focus his attention on the papers.

Yuri furiously kicked the chair nearby, sending it flying to the other side of the room, crashing again the bookshelves furiously in a loud bang, "That's not the point here Flynn. This is the freaking fifth time already; you could have lose your life for good."

"It is not a surprise to have this many assassins coming after my head. Considering being the crown prince and a real thorn to the Imperial Council, I would not have it any other way."

"Then why don't you go and capture that old greezer, we all know that he is the mastermind behind these assassinating attempts. Why don't you just turn him in?" The knight threw his hand up in the air, expressing anger. All their investigations had led them to that old perverted man, whose intention was to get rid of the prince when the bastard failed to make him his docile doll to play with politically and sexually. Yuri gritted his teeth harshly at the way those eyes of that greezer kept on roaming over the prince's body. "That perverted bastard." Yuri spat venom.

Flynn inhaled; he brought two fingers to massage his forehead as he picked up another document to read. These past few days, things had not going well for him, not only the pressure from the Council and his mother about getting married to a noble lady, but also the assassination, and Yuri-being hot headed as he usually was did not help him relaxed at all. "Ragou…is a man with high status and an important member of the Imperial Council. Mistakenly accusing him would make a bad situation for us, considering how we have not obtained any solid evidence. Until then, we are helpless to do anything. Therefore, do not try anything stupid, you hear me Yuri?"

He started getting worried when he did not received any response from the man, Flynn turned around on his chair, finding the former leaning against the bookshelf, deep in thought, "Yuri! Am I making myself clear?"

"Yes, pretty clear!"

The prince shot him an unsure look before turning back to concentrate on his work. Thus failed to notice the burning dark look flared up inside those black eyes.

Few days later, terror found Flynn as Sodia barged into his office and informed him of the discovery of Ragou's body down a river. He could not believe in what he heard so he decided to come to the place himself. The council members were thrown into restless chaos, and the knights were ordered to find any lead that led to the killer. No one was able to identify the culprit, but Flynn had a pretty solid idea who it was.

That night, Yuri was summoned to Flynn's study room. After telling the knight to close the door behind him, Flynn went straight to the subject.

"Did you kill Ragou?"

"What Ragou?" Nonchalantly, Yuri questioned back in a bored fashion.

Frustration filled his inside as Flynn smashed his hand on the desk, practically yelling, "Do not play dumb with me Yuri! Did you kill him or not?"

At that, Yuri's expression turned serious, as he stopped playing with his hair. His reply was not the one that Flynn wanted to hear, "What if I did?" His intense gaze bored deep into the Commandant's mind as he found himself speechless.

"Ragou is not a man that you can just kill and brush it asides like nothing happen Yuri. He is to be brought under the court and be dealt with by the law."

"Yes, and by the same law that going to have him demoted in rank for plotting the assassination of the crown prince, and poorly treated his people by throwing them to monsters to be eaten alive." Yuri shouted, clenching his fists in vain to supress his anger.

"Wh-what?"

"There were children too, Flynn, and they were eaten, all of them."

At first, Yuri only intended to sneak into the man's mansion to search for any kind of evidence that involve with the assassination. However, upon witness such inhuman deed the man had committed, Yuri decided to strike the man down by slicing his sword through the bastard's chest, and threw his dead body onto the river.

"To think, that bastard is building up his fortune by the people's blood and bones. I had not a second thought about killing him. It suited my first interest. "This way those assassins won't be coming after you anymore." Yuri looked down at his hand, the ones that stained with blood a few days ago.

Flynn found himself remained speechless; he did not know what to say. But he knew for one thing that Yuri was telling the truth. After the incident, he had ordered an investigation at the victim's mansion. To his surprise, there were reports of fragments of human bones everywhere at the basement. That despicable man was beyond hope. However despicable it might be, what Yuri had just done was also unacceptable, "You are a knight, you cannot go around killing people, no matter how big their crimes are."

"If you are worried about causing trouble for the Imperial Knights, then don't worry. I had disguised myself, no one would recognize me." Yuri approached the desk, as he whispered against the blonde's ear, "Someone gotta do the dirty job, Flynn."

He put a chaste kiss on the Commandant's lip, muttered against his lips, "I will protect you no matter what it takes!" before leaving behind a stunned Commandant. The raven haired man's declaration was too determined that it made him think it was alright to just turn a blind eye and leave everything to him. Flynn's heart tightened in a confusing knot. What was he supposed to do? Should he turn Yuri in? But he did not have any decisive evidence he could not capture Yuri. It would only create a bad reputation for the Knight. However, above all, how could he ever bring himself to capture Yuri? The punishment for taking a life of a noble would be a dead penalty. A public execution. How could he ever bring himself to issue a death sentence to the one he treasured above his own life? Flynn leaned back against the chair, feeling his heart being torn apart between love and responsibilities.

The next few days, he did not get a chance to see the knight. He was busy with all the military work, and he did not mind. Drowning in work was a great way to stay away from all troubled thoughts. Yuri seemed to make himself unavailable as well. He skipped practices, and according to his understanding of Repede's language, the man only went and helped the hound with its training in the morning and then disappeared along with few other knights. To be honest, Flynn was glad having some personal time to himself. Since after all that happened, he did not think he would be able to look at the man without feeling guilt eating at his heart. Even though it was Yuri who committed the evil deed, however if he was not too impotent as a Commandant, then Ragou would have already faced his deserved punishment in front of the law. Then Yuri would not have to dirty his hand. But, Flynn had a define doubt that it would not be easy to bring the man before the court, and would never going to receive his deserved punishment if it was not for Yuri. The blonde laughed pathetically at himself, at his failure in handing justice, only resulted in indirectly forcing his beloved to stain his hands for him.

He decided to go and pay his sister a visit, since he could not able to bring himself to look at Yuri right now, He thought his mind was not ready to see the man without yelling at him again. The least thing he wanted was to worsen their relationship. So he made his way towards the Princess chamber.

Once arrived there, he knocked on the door, but received no answer. A maid came by and informed him that the Princess had gone out for a walk at the garden. Flynn thanked the maid and proceeded towards the hallway that led outside.

The morning rays of sunlight washed on his face. It smelled of earth and a tint of soft scent of flowers erupted the atmosphere in a gentle hug. The sensation was so nice that he felt like he could forgive anyone off his or her crimes. He positively thought that if Yuri was to appeared right in front of his eyes that very moment, he would pull the other man into a hug and savoured in his earthly scent that he had developed an addiction to.

A faint sound of laugh entered his ears as he was pulled back from his stream of thoughts and he reflectively turned his head towards the source of voice. There it was at the center of the garden, his sister-princess Estellise was spotted along with a certain dark haired knight. It would not take Flynn more than a few seconds to recognize the familiar face of his lover. Both of them were engaged in a seemed to be very interesting conversation that they did not notice his coming presence.

Yuri was telling his sister some sort of story that she could not stop chuckling. Flynn had always enjoyed looking at his beloved sister's smiling face. It always brought a gentle warmth feeling to his heart. However, upon now, seeing her laughing with Yuri besides her made his heart ached. He ached at the fact that both of them looked beautifully standing together. The purple highlight in Yuri's hair and his choice of black clothing seemed to compliment his sister's pink hair and aqua dress perfectly. Like a full moon along with Brave Vesperia-the brightest star on the night sky. Both shone brightly to bring gentle light to a world that sunk in darkness.

Flynn was not a person who would pay attention to art and fashion, but he could see that Yuri and his feature contrasted each other like day and night, like light and shadow. Not to mention their differences in personalities and thoughts. Recently, after having a fight with Yuri, Flynn started to believe that the knight uniform looked ridiculous on Yuri. He sometimes let his mind wondered and often pictured the other man in a rouge looking clothes that he had seen the guild members worn. It surely suited him better than the stiffness that the knight uniform provided. That would explain why he had never closed his uniform's collar.

Another faint laugh of the princess filled the air as Flynn found himself walking away from those two. He felt not the need to stay any longer, for it made his heart throbbed painfully.

* * *

After countless Council and Knight meetings in hope of finding the culprit of Ragou's murder resulted in vain. The Council finally made the decision to postpone all the investigation for the time being until they found a new lead. Flynn found himself sighed in relief at that. Despite what the black haired man had done, he would not be able to stay calm if anything were to happen to him. Probably not able to stay calm but raging hell.

"I heard that they finally stop the investigation?" Yuri asked while dangling himself over the window's sill. After dinner, Flynn returned to his chamber and was doing the last bit of his paper work, when suddenly his window bust opened followed by a certain knight who entered his room unceremoniously. It was the first time in three weeks that Yuri finally appeared himself in front of him.

"Probably they had finally learned the reason that led Ragou to his death. So they decided to postpone all investigations in order to stop us from prying any further. They have an image to uphold after all." Flynn replied half-heartedly, "Besides, I do not feel the need to continue on with the investigation since the killer was already identified."

"Too bad that you don't get to arrest me huh?"

"That is not funny Yuri. Do you wish to seek death that desperately?" Flynn abruptly stood up from his chair, causing the stack of papers fell off the desk and crashed against the marble floor in a messy motion.

The other man almost jumped at the sound. "Hey, hey easy there. Getting all worked up won't do you any good."

"Must I keep on remind you every single time that I am not worked up?"

"It doesn't look that way to me."

"YURI!"

"Alright, alright. Keep you voice down will you? I don't want to stir up any commotion that would have Sodia running after my head. The one from yesterday was already enough." Yuri scratched his head, leaning against the window nervously. Yesterday night he tried to sneak into the Prince's chamber, as if it was not his lucky day that he had to run into Sodia, who seemed to keep on patrolling the hallway of the blonde's bedroom. She did run after him, trying to catch him for attempting suspicious act against the commandant. The next day, he swore that he would never use doors again.

"What is this commotion that I have not heard of?" Flynn raised his eyebrow suspiciously.

"Never mind" The knight waved his hand dismissively. "So how have you been lately? I believe this is our first talk since…two, three weeks ago?"

Flynn sighed, bringing two of his fingers to massage the bridge of his nose as a habit. Out of all the things that he could say… "As you can see, I am still living and performing my duties perfectly everyday, unlike a certain someone who seem to be slacking off for the past three weeks."

He said bitterly, eyes not directing at the other man's direction as he threw himself down on his chair, making no intention of cleaning the paper mess. Those past three weeks, Flynn had sleepless night afraid that the next day came with a warrant for the man's arrest. He spent every of his waking hours to think of a way to deal with the worst case that could have happened. Yet, the main subject of his constant worry seemed to be running around, enjoying himself.

"Hey Flynn."

"What?"

"You miss me?"

"Ex-excuse me?" The question flashed at him caught him off guard. He turned his head around, seeing Yuri approached him, sneakily dropped himself onto his lap, straddling him. One hand moved up to tangle in his hair; the other worked its way up to caress his bony cheek. Flynn felt himself holding off a breath, unconsciously leaning onto the touch. After a few months dating Yuri Lowell, Flynn learned that the said man always the cause of his constant yelling, but also the soothing wind that he needed to calm himself down. Flynn may be stronger physically, but Yuri always won with words and gestures.

He laced his hands around the knight's slim waist, pulling him closer in a tight embrace. His face buried onto the latter's chest, inhaled in the scent of Yuri, he whispered, "Please do not expose yourself to danger any longer. I am already content having you by myself. As long as you are by my side, I am going to live and stay strong. Therefore, please do not do anything that would cost you your life. Please Yuri!"

Desperation filled his heart as he tightened his hold, afraid that Yuri would slip through his grasp and never return to him. After the event of Halure, Flynn would found himself waking up in his sleep, with body covered in sweat and heart throbbed in fast beating. The image of a blood-drenched, lifeless Yuri had imprinted in his mind vividly that he could still remember the broken sensation that tore apart his whole being in his nightmares. Yuri was no doubt had become a part of himself, a part that he could never live without.

A faint chuckle woke him up from his darken thought, and a gentle caress of his hair reminded him how real his feelings were.

"Look at me Flynn."

The prince reluctantly adverted his eyes to be met by a beautiful black pearls.

Yuri smiled at him, "I have my resolve to protect you, and I intend to do just that."

"But…"

"Hush now! I completely understand what you are saying. So there is no need to keep on saying it." With that, the knight leaned in closer, and Flynn found himself mimicked his lover's action until both of their lips met in a gentle contact.

The kiss left a burning sensation, and strangely it felt bitterly painful. But Flynn could not deny that kissing Yuri Lowell was the best thing happened for him lately. He had soon got over his initial embarrassment when he first found out how he had become too addicted to the other man's kisses. It had become natural and sensually, their kisses kept on stretching longer and longer, and it did not end with just one kiss. Flynn had to feel more and have more of those feelings that the knight provided him with his kisses.

"Yuri, please promise me that things like this will never happen again." Flynn whispered in between a kiss, his eyes locked with Yuri, searching for any sign of denial.

"I promise."

A smile graced his lips, and just as Yuri promised him, it was the last time…ever.

* * *

A month went by with Flynn could not able to see his lover at all. Due to the indifferent gathering of monsters and many cases of the town people went missing, Yuri along with others knights were dispatched under Captain Schwann's command to investigate the reason for such disturbance. Flynn felt reluctant to assign his beloved knight with the task. However, Yuri had begged him to let him to go outside the capital for a change of air. Apparently, being stuck around the castle was agitated for Yuri. Flynn could understand that Yuri was a person of freedom, and since Flynn did not have much chance to travel outside the capital lately it must bored the black haired knight out.

He found himself smiling at a report from Captain Schwann about their closure of the mission, and his team would be returning to the capital within a six days period. Six more days until he would be able to have the knight in his arms again.

However, he did not expect himself to be the one come running to Yuri.

The prince arrived at the desert town Mantaic on a hot afternoon. After descending his horse, he quickly made his way into the inn where Captain Schwann was ordered to wait for him there.

"What is the meaning of finding Sir Cumore's body on the edge of the town?" Flynn asked with uncertainty in his head.

"Two days ago, when we were about to leave, one of the knight came rushing in, reporting that they found his body at the northern part of the town. There were traces of sand all over his body, as if he was buried alive." The old Captain leaned forward to show Flynn the document, as he talked in a lower tone, making sure that other knights would not be hearing this, "After our month here, we have discovered that Cumore was the one behind all these missing incidents of the town people. Apparently, he used his authority to force the civilians to do some investigations for him out there in the desert. Those investigations seemed to intensely emerge a large consumption of aer, causing the aer to turn red, and transform the monsters into fiendish beasts. It took us a long time to finally get rid of the monsters."

Flynn knitted his eyebrows in thought, while Schwann kept on with his report, "I had dispatched some of our knights to go into the desert to look for any alive citizens, but we failed to see one. Without solid evidence nor a witness, we could not confront Cumore for his crime, he would just keep on denying it. Then suddenly he is dead, mysterious. A few witnesses had stated that they saw a long hair man ran off from that direction late at the night. But they paid him no attention, only to discovered a murder in the next morning."

Flynn found himself glued on the chair, his eyes stared off into a random direction, and he then asked, smechanically, "Are all of the knights known this crime of Cumore?"

The man shook his head, "Only myself and a selected few are made aware of this situation and carried out my order discreetly."

"Was Yuri Lowell a part of these selected few?"

"He was."

* * *

Flynn was leaning against his chair when he heard familiar footsteps outside of his tent. It did not take him any effort to know who the owner was.

"Does anyone not knock anymore?"

"Sorry, knocking is not on my agenda."

The lid serving as door was flipped aside as a dark haired man entered, "You called me Commandant?"

Flynn opened his mouth to say, having his back faced towards the other man, "Did you kill Cumore?"

"What?"

"I ask you, did you kill Cumore?"

"Flynn…"

"Just one word Yuri. Did you or did you not?" The prince yelled, grabbing the other man's wrist in a death grip. The latter gave out a surprise yelp of pain, as his face winced in pain, obviously being taken back by such a sudden violent outburst.

"Did you?"

Silence.

The prince felt his blood boiled, his sanity crushed under his burning fury. He did what he had never imagined; he threw his hand into a fist and directed it towards the raven haired's face. The contact was so hard that the other man tumbled backwards, crashing himself against the tent's lid, fallen onto a mud puddle outside of the tent as his face hit the ground. Brown mud drenched over his hair and body, his lips tasted the stinky substance, and a big angry bruise made it visibly on his cheek. For the first time, Flynn did not feel sorry for him.

The prince followed the man outside, feeling the very much-needed urge to punch the life out him.

"Did you not make a promise with me?" The prince asked, soft broken noises of desperation could be heard in his voice, he did not have the strength to yell anymore. Not when his most important had betrayed his trust.

The promise he shared that day had been the pillar of emotion that supported his heart throughout these eight years of regret. He found his resolve to not giving up because in his heart, he believed that his childhood friend would come back for him. He kept on putting up with pressures, with countless confrontations, clinging on a promise to change this country. All he needed, all he ever needed was this man, was the sake of meeting Yuri, of being with Yuri, of changing this country for Yuri.

The prince laughed in a maniac manner, as the other man looked up at him. Flynn had always proud of the fact that he was good at reading people. However, it seemed that he was no longer able to read and understand Yuri. Not anymore.

Drops of tear flowed down his swollen blue eyes, as it came to him that despite what how much effort he put forward, Yuri would never change. For him it was such an idiotic act to think that the man would change. Why could not he realize sooner that even though he was crazy in love with him, he just could not let Yuri suffer any longer. For his trust to be betrayed by his beloved, he should have known that their relationship was not meant to be. Yuri and him had always been different, and it made them see things differently.

It was the time for him to set Yuri free.

"Yuri Lowell. I am, Commandant Flynn Scifo, hereby dismissed you from knighthood. I appreciate your brilliant services that you had offered. You are to leave the castle and never to return."

He was not mad at Yuri. He blamed himself instead, for causing his most important person to suffer from committing evil deeds for his sake. He still remembered nights when he stayed up late from doing his paperwork. Sometimes he saw the dark haired knight sat on a bench at the garden lifelessly, staring at both his hands for something invisible yet disgusting. His face was troubled from ruthless nightmares.

"So you have come to this decision then? I see, so that is how it is."

Then the raven haired man brought his dirty hands up and wept along his cheek in a slow, gentle motion, similar to that of a caress. His black eyes locked with his, a fake smile that so not like him appeared on his lips. And the remaining distance between their lips was sealed; regret and sorrow were exchanged through the skin contact. The feeling tasted so salty.

Flynn swallowed a painful cry as Yuri's broken expression made contact with him one last time before he turned around on his feet and left without voicing any protest. Sure, the man was a pain in the neck, acted reckless and being such a lone wolf, and never played things by rules. Unlike him, he respected the rules and laws, he believed bad people should be brought under the court and judged by the laws.

Because he was standing with his face facing the other man's back, he didn't see those black eyes that he loved so much had widened in a short moment. The flesh of purple hair swayed gently in a swift motion of turning back. A tiny light of hope made its way to those eyes, wishing for the other male to call after him.

**Everything should have not started.**

The prince dropped onto the ground on his knees, minded not his white uniform got stain by the mud as he staring off into the road that led his knight away from him.

"I am always the one that drive you away? Is it not cruel of me?" He asked the darkness, knowing that only silence would answer him. He brought his hand up over his heart; each painful throb reminded him the days when he woke up each morning, wondering where the other man was. How was he? Did he grow up to be a fine man? Did he still remember the promise they shared? Would he come back, and be by his sides.

It hit Flynn hard that his life started to revolve around that black haired man.

"YURI!"

He screamed into the distance. The words came out tinted bitterly at his lips. He bit down on his lips, as tears flowed down his face in a distorted motion.

Why did not he do something to stop the man from going? He did not know. He was helpless. He could not protect the only person he truly cared for, yet alone claiming to protect innocent lives and change this country as the promise they both exchanged when they were still kids. A childish promise.

He could see the change in himself. His beloved knight lightened up the dark side of him and only he could be able to make him change this much. He was no longer the person he was, all thanks to that person.

Flynn found him sat motionless; staring off into the darkness until Sodia came running to him, ushering him to move outside as rain started to fall. He could careless about himself. It did not matter anymore. None mattered.

* * *

Two weeks after Yuri was dismissed, princess Estellise paid his brother a visit as she dreadfully gasped upon seeing her brother's state. He was no longer the respectful and dignified Commandant and crown prince that he used to be. His blue eyes gazed at her, and she saw that the light inside was broken. It had been broken ever since his knight left. He drowned himself in work, training, and tried to keep himself busy from thinking about a certain black haired.

She wept for him, watching he lived day by day like he was waiting for his life to end. No matter how the maids tried to make him presentable, the tiredness still found its way into his eyes, he went on and performed his duties perfectly…like a machine.

"Commandant Scifo, we just received a crucial information that could help us identify the criminal who ruthlessly took the life of Sir Cumore."

That morning, the Council members called him, telling him that they had something of a rather interesting fact that they would like to have his opinion on. So here Flynn was, trying to hide his dead state, stood firmly in front of the members.

"Par…pardon me? He had anticipated enduring one of their ridiculous rants again, however, he did not expect that.

"You heard us right. According to a reliable information source, it seemed the one behind Sir Ragou and Sir Cumore's murder was the same person. And, it is quite intriguing for us that these sources led to…a long haired man, and… possibly a knight at that."

Flynn's heart stopped dead, he dug his feet harshly against the marble floor as he found himself almost stumbled on the ground, fought hard to stand straight. In his mind, he felt like a burning fire was burning away his heart as countless questions and doubts eating at his brain. 'Where did they get this information?' or 'Would Yuri be alright?' and 'Did they have yet to capture him?'

Dead terror hit him at the thought what if the dark haired man was already killed?

"Commandant Scifo! Do you know what this means?" One of the members eyed him carefully.

He understood just fine what did that mean. It would be pose an insult to the Council Member to have their two important people being killed by an imperial knight.

"We know that you are trying to improve the authority of the Imperial Knight. However, we certainly did not expect you to use such underhanded method. How despicable."

"No! You have it wrong. I could never…"

"Then…capture this knight and turn him to us. We expect to deal his crime justice. How about a public execution? If you can do that, we will accept it as an apology from the Knight, and we will let the matter slide." All the members nodded their heads in agreement. "Do you understand, Commandant Scifo?"

A blurry glance at Garista's smirk-a high member of the Council made him aware that they knew exactly whom they were referring to, and of that relationship between him and Yuri.

Flynn gritted his teeth with his head hang low as he walked out of the room. Captain Schwann had been waited for him besides the door. The man approached him, patting his shoulder. As he had been living two lives of a Guilder and a Knight, he soon noticed the secrets of the young lads through his sharp eyes and information sources. The very first time he saw Yuri, he would recognize him immediately as he used to deal business with Yuri's father in the past. The Prince did not seem to try to hide that from him either, cause he did not need to. So a few days ago, when he visited the prince late at night regarding information about Yuri's whereabouts, the prince had confirmed his remaining doubts.

"Now what are we gonna do?"

Flynn shook his head, he could no longer think straight. The Commandant part of him urged him to capture Yuri and bring him under the law, like a criminal. However, the other part of him, the part of a human with the name's Flynn, the part that hopelessly in love with the raven haired man told him to do otherwise.

"Captain Schwann, I would like for you to go to Dangrest and keep an eye on Yuri. Please do not let him do anything reckless. Also, please keep track of the Bounty Hunting guilds. We have not known if the Council would try anything."

The old man nodded his head, as he turned around heading for the City of Guilds.

If anyone were to capture him, it would be Flynn himself. Until then, he would allow no one to touch his beloved.

"Commandant, sir. The Imperial Council is pressuring us to find the responsible party for the death of their two members. What are we going to do sir?" Sodia placed another reminder letter from the Council on his desk. He paid it no attention. He had made up his mind that he was to protect Yuri, while kept on increasing the name for the Knight by executing more duties and completed them perfectly.

Letters from Captain Schwann told him that Yuri was indeed in Dangrest and he carried out Guild jobs just like his father did for living.

Flynn sighed in relief. It seemed that they had managed to control the information from leaking to Dangrest. If Yuri were to hear the end of this, he would be rushing off to here, and ended up dying. Flynn would make sure to see none of that going to happen.

* * *

After one month of waiting, the council grew restless at the fact that the Imperial Knight had not yet to presented him the killer. They finally told him that if he would not send the killer to them by the end of next month, he would be stripping off of his Commandant position and return to be a prince and ascend the throne of the Empire.

Even so, he intended not to do as they told him to. He had made up his mind and he care not about his position anymore. He would find a way to achieve his goal when he became the Emperor. The Council thought that they could control him like his father. He would prove that they were wrong. Thanks to Yuri, he was able to reborn anew person- with new reason and purpose of his life. Sacrificing his dream for the sake of that one precious person did not seem to be enough.

A smile graced across his lips as he soon found a new resolve to just know when to stop. He rather achieve his goal slowly, than losing the most important part of his life. As long as Yuri still alive, he would be the source of his strength to continue fighting.

Until then, he kept on wishing hopefully that Yuri could stay away from troubles.

That day Sodia entered his office, putting on his desk yet another letter. As usual, Flynn did not pay it any attention. His second in command only doing her job of handing it over to him, whether reading it or not was his responsibility.

A knock against his door took his attention away from the paper he was reading. Sodia answered the door as Garista-the platinum haired man from the Imperial Council. He was the fiercest man, who had other people warped around his fingers. He was after all-the biggest shadow behind the Council.

Flynn stood up from his chair, bowing respectfully, "Is there anything you need of my assistance sir?"

"Actually, yes. I do need you to come with me for a second, Commandant Scifo." Garista adjusted the glasses on his nose as he glanced at him, amusement in his eyes. And Flynn did not like the look of it.

Nodded his head sharply, Flynn followed the man outside and walked down the hallway. Despite being not often going this part of the castle, Flynn immediately knew where this man was heading to: the castle jail.

Set of staircases led downwards started to turn darker as uneasiness filled the atmosphere. Flynn stole a glance at the blond haired man before him with a candle on his hand, providing little light yet enough for them to see.

Garista nodded to a guard, as he walked past him and continued down the way. Flynn followed him like a machine, with a feeling of something bad that was about to happen. Only when Garista stopped in front of one cell and had his eyes smirked evilly at him that he turned his attention to what or rather who was inside the cell.

There it was, in the corner, sat a shadow of the young man with long dark hair. One of his wrist was chained to the stone wall behind him, and the other one was bleeding still, as if it was from being cut by a sword or knife. Terror hit him once the face that was hidden by shadow turned around at presence of people.

Flynn had to bit on his lips to suppress himself from shouting out his beloved's name. He unconsciously approached the cell, trying to take a closer look at the other man.

The black eyes stared back at him tiredly. His face was swollen from bruises, there were several cut around on his cheeks and necks. From what he could see, or trying hard to see, the man was suffered from a good beating and torture. Despite having his shirt covered most of his chest, he could register the tint of blood here and there on that pale skin.

"I believe you recognize this man, Commandant Scifo? He was one of the knights under your personal brigade, was he not?"

Flynn found himself stayed silent. He was still at shock and pain upon taking in the state Yuri was in. Why was he even here?

Garista went on, "This man is the criminal who took away the lives of Sir Cumore and Sir Ragou. We arrested him two days, and upon realizing that this man was a former knight under your direct command. We thought that we should not make a big commotion out of this considering how bad it would possibly turn out for the Imperial Knight's reputation."

So that was the reason why he received no news about this.

"This man committed serious crime. Therefore his only just punishment would be a public execution. That would be tomorrow. The Council is running restless, and everyone wants this to finish quickly."

Again, Flynn said nothing. He pretended not hearing anything. All he could make out was something between 'better not let him escape' and 'the knight will be directed with treason if anything happened' and a disgusting laugh of Garista as the man walked out of the dungeon and left both of them alone. Tomorrow…

The commandant brought his hand over through the crack between the cell's iron bars as he tried to reach out for the other man. Yuri mirrored his action as their fingers tangled in a gentle squeeze. The blood stained on his hand, yet he did not care.

"Hey…how are you?" Yuri whispered, the voice that came out of his cut lips was cracked ones.

"What the hell are you doing here, Yuri?" Flynn refrained himself from shouting, but it seemed the effort was wasted. His hands shook furiously as he let out a shout. "What is Captain Schwann doing? He is supposed to keep an eye on you!"

The dark haired man smiled at him, the grip on his hands tightened as the former began speaking, "Don't blame the old man, he performed his duties perfectly. But I'm just more clever than he is."

"Why…why did you return Yuri? I told you to go away, why did you return? Did you not understand that this would happen to you?"

Yuri breathed out a heavy sigh, but it sounded more like a relief. He leaned his head against the rusted iron bars as he spoke in a soft voice, "Can't you be any more dense? Obviously I returned to protect you."

"That is the main reason why I dismissed you from the Imperial Knight. I'm trying to keep you away, to prevent things like **this** to happen? Don't you understand? You will be a dead man tomorrow Yuri!"

"If that is what I can do to protect you. I would gladly accept it."

The weak smile directed at him made his heart ached. What he feared the most was about to become reality. If he was not going to do anything, he would lose Yuri for good.

"I will get you out of here!" Flynn exclaimed as he stood up and pulled out his sword, ready to bust open the lock on the cell's gate.

Yuri's frail hand grabbed onto the edge of his sword, stopping him. He shook his head, "Don't do this Flynn, you know that we can't do anything now. Not anymore."

Yuri's words slapped at him, dropping his sword as Flynn punched his fist into the wall, cursing loudly. His shoulder trembled as he stumbled to the ground. Was there seriously nothing that he could do now to save him?

"Flynn! Look at me!"

The wounded hand gentle made its way across his face, guiding it around to be met by the pair of black orbs that had been imprinted into his memories since long ago.

"I have always been saying this, but I will be the one to protect you. I would trade my life for yours. It is indeed a pity that I couldn't walk this long road together with you. You have made it this far; you can't afford to lose here. Just a little bit more!"

"But…there is no meaning to this if you are no longer with me, Yuri…everything I did had always been for you…"

"Don't be silly, I will always be with you, no matter where you go."

Silence filled the air as Flynn hung his head low, trying to concentrate on the gentle caresses in his hair that Yuri's hand provided him. "There is nothing else that I can do, isn't there?"

Yuri lowered his hed, remaining silence. He afraid that if he said anything selfish, he would end up destroying Flynn and their promise, and he absolutely did not want that to happen.

Flynn stood up, making his way towards the dungeon's guard and demanded the key from him. Obviously, the guard was ordered by Garista not to allow him to get his hand on the key, but a shout from the blonde prince made the guy jumped on his feet and immediately handed the key over.

Yuri's face went confused as he returned with the key in hand, and he unlocked the cell, just to let himself in and closed it behind him.

Flynn kneeled down to the chained man level, as his finger brushed across the nasty bruises on the latter's face.

"Yuri, there is one thing that I must do. Will you allow me?"

The dark haired knight smiled weakly, hints of happiness swam across his eyes as he nodded, "Thought you never asked."

The prince pulled his beloved closer until their lips met in a burning kiss. A whole three months of parting had fuelled their need to be with each other. Flynn savoured the earthly taste of his lover as he closed his eyes in a hopeful feeling. Hope that their little time left together would be enough to support himself for the road ahead, and to believe in a new tomorrow where despite wherever he went, Yuri would be there, besides him.

A light tugging at his clothes was the beginning of their last night together. He could feel himself melted into gentle touches of Yuri unchained hand. Their bodies pressed close together, seeking for the warmth that only themselves could have provided each other. Between his gasps and pants, Yuri called out his name in a heated fashion; it only made Flynn regretted the short amount of time they spent together. There was not enough time for them, and yet they spent most of it arguing. If only he knew this would happen, he would have done this sooner. Imprinting the man's smell on him, filling the dark haired with his essence that he could only crave for no one else but him, even in the after life.

Flynn whispered softly against Yuri's neck, as he pulled the other man's naked body against him, "Tomorrow, I am going to throw away my heart, the one that cherish you, the one that hopelessly in love with you. I want you to bring the human named Flynn with you. Bring all of him with you."

"That's quite a heavy luggage." Tears rolled down Yuri's bruised covered face, staining his lips bitterly as both of his arms warped around the blonde's neck, bringing their forehead together, as he whispered softly, "Flynn, can I ask you to do something for me?"

"What is it?"

"Tomorrow, can you be the one to send me off?" With his eyes closing, Yuri snuggled closer against his beloved.

"Wh..at? You want me to…" Flynn glanced aside at his lover with disbelief.

A faint chuckle was heard, as the former knight spoke, "I want to die by your hand, I want you to be the last person I see. That way I would still be able to remember you and come back to haunt you in the after life."

"That is not funny. But this request of yours, I will be sure to grant it. That is the least I can do for you." Flynn smiled, though his smile was bitterly withered.

"Flynn…I'm sorry."

**To have been born, to meet you and to love you was a miracle. Thank you for being with me.**

* * *

The day of the execution, lots of people were gathered at the Public Quarter, where a criminal responsible for taking lives of a two nobles would receive his death sentence. The nobles were curious about this sinful individual. But the Lower Quarter people were thrown into silence. They remembered the young kid who used to run around with beaming smile on his face. The only kid of Lower Quarter origin who made it into Imperial Knight.

His princess sister Estellise begged him to let her go to the site, but he forbade her to do so. Tears of sorrow stained her pale face as she collapsed and was taken back to her room for resting.

Flynn had himself dressed in his Commandant attires, with his sword hang around his waist. The very same outfit that Yuri had seen him for the first time after eight years. Today this would be the last image of him that he wanted Yuri to remember. It is the image of a Commandant who would continue fighting for the sake of their dream.

He told him that after today, there would only be Scifo the Commandant or Scifo the Crown Prince. The plain Flynn Scifo would leave this place with together with Yuri. All of his feelings would be with Yuri on his eternal journey.

At a little past noon, where the sun stroke high at the sky, the murderer was moved to the execution site by the knights. There were presence of both victims' families, the representatives of the Imperial Council, and Commandant Scifo-the head of the Imperial Knight.

Garista moved forward, motioning his hand to silence the crowd with his sultry voice, "Today, we are all here to witness the moment of judgement for this sinful individual who had lost his sight and committed such traitorous act against our own people. He had mercilessly taken away the lives of two respective men, who had done nothing but goodness for our empire. It is this man that we must present a just punishment for him."

Flynn felt a really strong urge to punch that council bastard right here and there. Luckily, the speeches finally over before he had a chance to commit a devilish act to sullen the name of the Imperial Knight further.

Garista pointed his hand towards Flynn, "Now is the moment of judgement. I present Commandant Scifo who will be the one to represent our law and justice to give this criminal what he deserves."

The Commandant stood up from his chair. The sunlight glared on his face blocked his view of the other demanding mob. There would be only one thing that he wanted to focus on right now. It was the raven-haired man who was kneeling before him, with a weak yet content smile on his face

It was the time for their forever parting. He would make this quick, and ended this ever ending suffering for both him and Yuri.

Flynn reached towards his sword, pulling it out of the sheath as he raised it up and asked, "Is there any last thing that you want to say?" Coldness ran over his ear, where the black stone tinged painfully. It was cold, colder than he could imagine. Forcing his head to look down at him, even though it was painful. Yet, he told Yuri that the man today…was no longer him. He was just a Commandant, handing down a punishment for a sinful criminal. His hands would not shake, his eyes would not waver, and his tears would not fall.

A gentle gust of wind blew across his cheek, much like the same one of that day where he first met Yuri. A strong scent of primrose mixed between. He felt happy and blissful that the wind had brought this man to him, to let him become an important piece of his life. Destiny had chosen them to be the opposite side of each other. He was the light, and Yuri was the shadow. They brightly contrasted, yet could not live without the presence of the other.

Flynn looked down again at the soft black hair that was flown gently against the wind. He smiled to himself at the miracle that allowed them to meet each other.

"Hey, I already had your luggage. So…I'm going on ahead."

"Yeah…see you later Yuri."

The End

* * *

A/N: Yup, so this is the end of this fic. And it was my first attempt at writing angst! I think I failed to get the emotions across and rushing stuffs. But i have no intention to stretch this story longer than needed you everyone for reading this fic till the end, and I really appreciated your reviews and favorite!

I am currently working on my next story, and hope to get it published soon. Until then, I wish everyone best luck! XD_  
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